


The Best of Us

by LesLoli



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F, For Want of a Nail, fwoan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-05-24 21:09:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 18
Words: 26,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6166933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LesLoli/pseuds/LesLoli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's replace Joel with Sarah for the Last of Us. Who just so happens to be a lesbian. Who can heem every here.</p><p>Rated specifically for ages (12-21). Stop reading now if you are not in this age group.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Sir, there's a little girl. But...yes, sir."

The ink-black night sky above fell down upon the bright headlights of the ambulance some distance behind them. The mounted flashlight beam pointed directly at Sarah and her father Joel, who was cradling her incapacitated body in his weary but protective arms.

Was it just her imagination, or was the glare of the flashlight trained mostly on her?

_Daddy?_

"Listen, buddy, we've just been through hell. Okay, we just need-"

The rattle of the rifleman's hands meant that he was shouldering his rifle to take aim at both her and her dad. _Oh God,_ she was either going to die in her father's arms, or the most important person in her entire life was going to be taken from her by a nameless, faceless flash of light, and there was nothing Sarah could do about it. 

_Oh. No. He's going to shoot us. He's going to ki-_

They dropped, sprawling onto the ground. Loud bangs. A cloud of dust. Surprisingly, the first thought in Sarah's mind was mostly about the smell of fresh earth underneath her, which was at least refreshing after having a nose full of burning gasoline and flesh from their ordeal over the past hour. Then she returned to the present moment and looked back to her father.

_Are we shot? Are we going to die here? Oh no, he's coming this way. Did Daddy just fall? I have t-_

"Please, don't."

_Please don't. Daddy don't die. Don't get killed._

**Please don't.**

CRACK

The soldier in front of her collapsed into a heap of flesh. Uncle Tommy was back! Everything was going to be alright!

"Daddy? Dad! Uncle Tommy saved us, h-"

_Daddy?_

________________  
20 Years Later,  
Summer

"Daddy?" Sarah startled awake. The afternoon rays of the setting sun warmed only her skin. She found no solace with the sunlight, nor with the female companion pressed up against Sarah's body. 

They had barely gotten the blanket up to their knees before passing out in the early morning. The bed was grimy but not smelly, and seemed clean enough to fuck off on after a quick brushing off of the residue left by the previous users. Not bothering to cover her partner's partially undressed body with the duvet, Sarah got up and went straight for the bottle.

"How was your sleep, Sarah?" the woman in her bed asked, as soon as she felt the absence of Sarah's weight and warmth.

Sarah exhaled inaudibly. "It was alright. Been more looking forward to having some of this stuff for when I woke up, though, Tess."

Tess sat up on one haunch, and noted the state of undress she was in. "Ha, jeez, sorry I was such a crappy lay."

Sarah grinned: "I think we were both too out of it to go all the way. You'll have to forgive me this time too."

A calm silence wafted throughout the room. They both felt the nice contrast of the warm rays of sunlight and the cool air seeping in between the window panes. Summer may have arrived, but the vestiges of the Boston spring were still felt.

For years the two women enjoyed the comfortable silence they shared, holed up in whichever safehouse they needed to crash in due to a job requiring them to be at different parts of the city. Today they were to take it easy and cash in some ration cards near the harbour in the quarantine zone for some processed, junk food as a treat for a particularly eventful haul. 

"So, I heard Marlene has our guns."

Tess continued with her revelation, "That dickhead...What'shisface...gave them to her to keep his teeth; they shot him in the back of the head anyway for his terrible track record of being a...human being."

Sarah almost brought the bottle to her lips, but closed her lips into a smile and handed the liqueur to Tess instead.

"Ha, you always know how to put me in a good mood, Tess," Sarah chuckled. Tess took a swig of the liquid drug, and grimaced up to her feet as she set it back down on the table. 

"Oh I can get you in any mood I want, sweetie, but it's time for us to go pick up our merchandise." Tess got up and felt herself up to recollect her bearings. She was missing pants and panties, and her shirt rode up to her underboob; the only article of clothing unmolested was her bandana.

Sarah had Tess's pants and panties all ready to be put on, using both her hands to place the leg holes of the pale pink panties and dark denim jeans together.

"Thanks, sweetie." Tess placed her hands on Sarah's head and stepped her legs into her pants. She felt the invigorating rush of excitement as she placed her crotch within spitting distance of Sarah's face. Tess could feel Sarah's nose breathe in and take the air away from her lower region.

But, as per usual, Sarah never directly acted on it. She had never directly acted on anything with Tess, and after some time together the both of them learned to accept this relationship.

It never stopped either of them from overtly satisfying themselves, like either of the two women touching herself while cuddled up in bed and looking the other dead in the eyes like the previous night, or like now where Sarah was pressing her forehead to Tess's tummy, sliding up to breast level as she pulled and zipped up Tess's pants for her.

Cheekily, Sarah pulled Tess' shirt up revealing her breasts, staring openly at Tess's tits for a lingering minute. Tess simply flared her chest out slightly, placing hands akimbo on her visible, light skinned hips for Sarah to take in all of her modest bosom. 

Sarah closed her slightly agape mouth into a broad smile, and bent down to pick up Tess's brassière. She came and tucked Tess' breasts into the flesh colored bra, which was actually darker than Tess's paler body. Adjusting slightly, Sarah used her bare hands to snugly pull Tess's breasts inside the bra into the most comfortable position she knew Tess liked. They had adjusted each other's breasts and labia for bras and panties for a while now, and never seemed to take offense. 

Tess, as usual, did not bother with the straps after the clasp was secure (the bra was too tight for her anyway), and she re-placed her shirt on top, ending the hands-on reverse strip show. She wondered for the umpteenth time in her moments with Sarah together, why they never went all the way, since they never had to worry about bringing another life into this barren world.

But it was time to get back to real world matters. "Let's get our guns, honey."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps3/652686-the-last-of-us/faqs/68485?print=1 for the transcript.


	2. Chapter 2

BOOM

The IED exploded at the QZ checkpoint, hurting Sarah but saving Tess any damage. They about faced and sprinted forward to another safehouse.

"Patch yourself up, babe." Inside the lobby, Tess gave Sarah her last med kit, and they walked side by side down the halls as Sarah dabbed ointment and fixed a rolled bandage over the cuts to prevent infection. By the time she finished, they got to a dilapidated bedroom with an empty tv set in the corner. Upon pulling it out of the way, they dropped down through the hole and came to the work bench where they left their contraband.

Guns, medicine, disallowed foods, and unsanctioned "sources of entertainment" were still there in their backpacks as they last left them here. All in order to walk freely in the quarantine zone without getting gunned down in the street by the heavily armed government workers.

Making their way down the tunnels to exfiltrate out of the QZ to where Marlene lay, they came down to the docks where the Fireflies usually had a rendezvous. Instead they scouted Hunters and troops at armed odds, and both women elected to take a detour.

Along the way, they found a peculiar body on the ground. Unusually, this man had his eyes blindfolded and hands cuffed behind his back. It was clear he was on his knees when he was shot, probably in the back of the head judging by the lack of a blood trail, meaning he died instantaneously.

"That was Robert," Marlene said, "We did the world a favor and saved a bunch of wasted time too." 

Tess and Sarah had already drawn their pistols, but kept the barrels down as they saw the condition Marlene was in. The left side of Marlene's torso was exsanguinating profusely, soaking through her tank top and even onto her jacket. 

"I have your guns, but I need to get myself stitched up before anything. Help me with that and one other thing, and you get your guns and some heavier shit for your troubles as a bonus."

Tess and Sarah kept their guns at low ready, but spared an eye at one another for confirmation to action. They nodded to each other, then to Marlene. "Okay, follow me to another safe space."

A quick skirmish broke out on the bridge with the survivors of the Hunter vs troop battle. Cover was taken, shots were fired, blood was spilt, and lives were ended. It all took minutes, and the trio made it to the bridge maintenance door.

"Fucking get your hands off of her!"

A knife, right handed, came swinging at the two helping Marlene. Sarah stepped up and used two open hands, arms bent perpendicularly at the elbows, to stop the knife arm at the wrist and shoulder. She kept the wrist controlled and swept her other arm around the attacker's waist for the belt grip and yanked hard on the pants for the hip toss.

Perhaps a bit too hard, since the assailant's body flew across the room. It was a child.

The child exclaimed, "Get away from her, now!"

Auburn hair, green eyes, and freckles met browned hair, greyed blue eyes, and noticeable facial scars. An upward shank from the girl, aimed for the woman's midsection, was negated by a quick penetration step in. Sarah had stepped in unexpectedly and tucked her left arm in at the elbow to guard her left torso, and thankfully gotten inside of the knife swing with the thumb web of her left hand stopping the knife arm at the wrist.

Grabbing the offending wrist again, Sarah reached over with her right arm to the same left side, fished her right hand up, over, and back down and inward to grab her own left wrist, and torqued her hips clockwise. She didn't wait to hear a pop and instead immediately swung her around barreling to the ground. Sarah swung her right thigh over the laying kid's face and clamped her thighs together to blind and smother the marauding offender.

As expected, she felt a bit of futile nibbling at her adductors, vulva and perineum, but curiously the biting stopped. All she felt was the panicked, moist breaths of the child on her crotch, and felt a complex sense of satisfaction at this whole predicament. 

"That's enough," Marlene said, "Ellie."

At that, Ellie dropped the switchblade. Muffled, Sarah heard and felt down from her lower body, "who the fuck are these people? did they hurt you marlene?"

"Ellie, what did I tell you about saying my name out loud? And no, these women are people you can trust. They're people you're going to _have to_ trust. They're taking you out of Boston, to good people."

Tess spoke for Sarah: "What? She's the other job? We don't smuggle kids!"

Sarah used her right hand to pick up the knife, and pushed the locking tab open to drop the blade; it was rusted open, and refused to close compact. She palmed it and slowly released Ellie's face from under her hips. She stood up and stepped over her body to join in on the adults' conversation. She showed no worry turning her back to the child, as she evidently dominated the other physically, proving to the child she could do it again. 

"Show us the guns and bonuses, and we've got a deal," Sarah declared. She commanded the respect and attention of the room, as usual, and Ellie sat up to take in the scene of two grown adults deferring to the alpha female of the conversation. 

"Fine," Marlene said, "One of you stay with Ellie and the other escorts me to my doctors. It's easier to slip by with two rather than three plus one."

"Marlene! Are you serious, I can hel-"

"NO! Baby, please, just stay here. I trust them more than I trust myself in this state to protect you. Now I have to get moving, but you be a good girl, okay?" Marlene was never this motherly, or caring, or kind, or this _human_ as Sarah and Tess remembered her; she must care for Ellie that much enough to not care how soft she appeared to them. 

Ellie frowned in the way children do, unreservedly and adorably, and complied. Marlene thanked her with a hug, one that lasted for quite some time, before pulling away. Sarah could have sworn she heard an "oh Anna..." but felt no compulsion to pry. 

"You should stay with the kid," Tess offered. Sarah looked at her offended, as if she were insulted, before Tess assuaged her: "You've already 'bonded' with her, and from the dilated pupils, flushed face, pointy tits, and what looks like a sopping wet pussy, it looks like you enjoyed playtime thoroughly."

Sarah looked down and saw her pants between her legs was indeed visibly darkened with wetness, and wondered if it was Ellie's mouth or Sarah's vagina that made her look so moist. Perhaps it was actually the life threatening fight she had earlier.

By the time she looked up, Sarah saw she was alone with Ellie. The girl came over to see what Tess was talking about, and looked with unabashed smugness at Sarah's highly aroused state. "Can I have my knife back now? I promise not to stab you, at least with that."

Sarah moved only her eyes down to Ellie's face, and leisurely handed the knife back, blade tucked toward herself. Considerate or not, Ellie paid no mind. She looked at the knife in her hand, and mischievously brought up the tip of the blade to just below Sarah's nipple poking out her shirt and with the flat of her blade, she tapped her nipple up from the bottom twice. Sarah said and did nothing, not moving her body one inch.

"Your pussy smelled nice, bitch," and Ellie turned on her heel with her smiling chin up, childishly and cutely tilting her head back as she turned around to walk ahead.

_This little.... I like this kid._


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah followed, taking in Ellie's squarish, juvenile frame. She was over a foot shorter than even Sarah herself, but clearly sounded and moved like a teenager. Most likely raised on insufficient or deficient rations growing up, she surmised. It was a sad but normal sight these days.

They reached yet another safe space, this one with actual locks that weren't bashed in by raiders at some point, and Sarah flopped down onto the couch.

"Uh, what do we do now?" Ellie stood a respectful distance from the supine Sarah.

" _We_ don't do anything. I'm going to sleep. You can do fuck all what you like, just don't wake me up."

Ellie mustered an exasperated sigh. "What am I supposed to do in this shithouse? Marlene said you're supposed to care for me!"

Sarah flipped an eye open, and decided to assert her dominance over the dynamic between the two females in the apartment. She lifted her leg and dropped it over the back of the couch, and opened her hips in taunting invitation. "I know something we can both do for each other, if you're really that bored," Sarah said, dripping with malicious intent.

Ellie, stunned into silence, flushed and looked away, momentarily. She stared at Sarah's now dry crotch for an uncomfortably long time, before Sarah began to feel a sense of dread creeping up her stomach. Wordlessly, Sarah turned away and went to sleep without much delay.

She felt the throes of sleep overtake her, and dreamt of how she and what remained of her family had done to survive after the apocalypse dropped on their heads. Sarah remembered feeling a disconnect from _him_ , whether to treat strangers with benevolence like he did, or with callous mistrust as Sarah increasingly did growing up in the new, changed world.

The dream skipped ahead to the schism point, where he finally brought up the belief in God. All the insidious tension that built up between the two finally ruptured then, and she set east on her own on that very day of the argument. Sarah had grabbed the pack she had ready for a year and swiftly fled away from him. Away from the last thing holding her back from hating humanity completely.

Wait, that's not completely true. No one, not even the almighty Sarah Ringwalt Dubois, could survive completely on her own. She made friends with Bill and his partner Frank, and lived with them for a short while in Lincoln until they began letting her work with them for smuggle trades with Boston contacts. And that's how she meet Tess.

Tess. The brown-haired, brown-eyed woman elicited a lot of emotions out of the jaded Sarah. First and foremost being limerence, and later the feeling of reciprocated respect between the gal pals. Many close calls were had with the two together, and they were always together through the thick and the thin. So many opportunities to just say, "I love you," and consummate their words, but Sarah always held back.

Maybe she should kiss her tonight? She'd laugh and probably call her a faggot, but kiss her back anyway.

It would feel good. Really good. Really really good, like she's feeling right n-

_Wait. Why? I'm actually feeling aroused right now, like for real. I thought this was a drea-_

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK

Sarah jumped awake and tried to assess the situation, but tripped over her feet. She found her pants down to her ankles and shirt pulled up past her breasts. Next thing she knew, she heard hurried footsteps run away from her and into another room. Sarah seemed to understand what Ellie was doing to her while she was out, and was more mad at herself for sleeping so heavily than the girl's childishly curious violation.

"Oy, you in there?" came Tess's voice from behind the locked door.

Sarah entertained the idea of opening the door in her denuded state, answering the probable "What happened?" question with a damning "I don't know, ask Ellie." For the time being, she simply answered, "Yea, we're still here. Give me a minute."

Realizing that that sounded like something was up, Sarah quickly checked her person to recreate what might have been done to her by that perverted little brat. Her skin felt unharmed, and curiously her nipples and vulva felt dry, so it seemed as if Ellie simply wanted to see what Sarah looked like in the flesh. She'd feel more outraged if not for how this had never happened before in her life, and how cute Ellie was for running away for the almost criminal act she committed.

She saw Ellie peek out the corner with a scared mien, and Sarah waited for her to say the magic word. "Say the magic word, Ellie," she spoke. Ellie mumbled out an earnest "I'm sorry" and came into Sarah's view fully.

Sarah smirked, and turned around, knowing Ellie would get a overall view of her derrière, and bent down completely straight legged to pull her pants up. She looked beside her legs to see Ellie flushed and mesmerized at the sight, and decided she was a good kid who didn't mean no harm. She finished pulling her pants up, and walked closer to the child.

Upon arm's length of Ellie, Sarah finished zipping up and buttoning her pants, and presented her boobs right at eye level with her charge. "Did you touch me when I was asleep?" Sarah asked Ellie.

"N-no. I was too afraid you'd wake up." Ellie's eyes could not make contact with Sarah's if she tried. She stared at the areolae, oddly paler than the rest of the breasts, and left her mouth ajar, long enough for a literal trail of saliva to drool down the front.

Full on smiling, the woman draped an arm around the girl's shoulders, and afterward finished pulling her shirt down. "If you're a good kid by the end of our trip, I'll let you touch them. Deal, kid?" Sarah used her hand and tapped Ellie's crotch up from the bottom to sweeten the deal.

_If only he could see me now.... He'd say, "You're gonna go to hell for this," but I'd just laugh and say, "I was already going there; might as well see what else I can do and what I can get away with while I can."_

"Oh, okay," Ellie muttered. She looked up at Sarah with those puppy love eyes, so entrancing that the taller woman actually lost her train of thought in those emerald irises.

KNOCKKNOCKKNOCK

"Are you done wiping your ass already? Come on, we've got to get a move on," Tess's voice came out from behind the door impatiently.

The couple inside decided to let her in, and Sarah extricated herself from Ellie to arouse no suspicions as she opened the door.

"Jesus, what were you hung up on?"

"Oh, I was still sleeping when Ellie was nice enough to wake me up. Thanks, kid." Sarah made sure to keep a straight face and look past and not directly at Tess's face. 

"Yeah, you always did sleep heavy. Alright, we're good with the deal," Tess announced.

"WHAT DEAL?" Ellie yelped.

All eyes turned to her, and Tess began to explain. "We're smuggling you to City Hall to rendezvous with some of Marlene's soldiers, where they'll know what to do with you. We do that and we get our funs back."

"'Funs'?" Ellie asked. Tess simply grinned and turned to the other end of the apartment, and Sarah simply shook her head slightly to request Ellie not to pursue the semantic any further. Ellie was just glad Marlene was okay, and the secret-keeping duo followed Tess.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to keep to the Women in Red (RIP) style of chaptering, this action one is a long doozy.

Upon closer inspection, Ellie noticed the wall was discolored and angled weirdly. The two women pulled the tall bookshelf away from the corner to reveal an alcove, and all three females shimmied into the adjacent hidden room. Tess fit through well enough, then Ellie had no problems fitting in. Sarah however required some fat displacement to get to her companions.

"Those fat titties of yours tender?" Tess teased. Tess was not insecure about her small breasts, which Sarah had shown nothing but admiration for, but Sarah's ample busom was both derided and celebrated when the situation called for such.

She waited until Tess turned away to check the generator, and Sarah turned to Ellie and winked. "Not exactly."

In the darkness, it was difficult to recognize facial expressions, much to the relief of the youngest member of the traveling band. She made her way over to the engine-generator, where Tess - the designated muscle of the group - gave it three well timed yanks. The gas-powered motor sputtered to life, supplying power to the elevator, which all three took down. 

Coming up from the underground, they made their way through a sinkhole turned creek, and reached the end where a trailer careened from the road above, down to their elevation. Climbing up from inside, Sarah briefly checked for sights and sounds, and told the ladies it was clear.

After she and Tess cleared the ramp, the polymer buttstock of an AR-family rifle hit Tess in the neck, and the assaulting woman pointed her muzzle at Sarah and yelled, "Don't move!"

Another uniform dragged Ellie out by her hair, and all three were ordered face down into the rainy dirt. The female officer began scanning each straggler at the nape, first with Tess (clean) and then with Sarah (same). As they got closer to Ellie, her breathing spiked and she retaliated with her knife, slicing the female officer's Achilles and then running away.

As the standing uniform took aim at the child, Sarah and Tess supinated and each grabbed an ankle. With a foot per woman, they upkicked hard into the groin, not caring what gender the attempted murderer was, and Sarah sat up to fire two 9x19mm shots into the faceless uniform's gas mask. Tess shot the female cop's side with a double tap, and double tapped the head as well.

The two women grabbed the plate carriers and loadouts off the dead bodies, and checked the magazine and chamber of their respective AR-15s (ah, no fun switch). "Damn that kid, let's go catch up with her before more of those assholes show up," Tess said. 

They caught up with Ellie, who was struggling to pull the garage door chain down, mainly due to not having enough weight to counterbalance the garage door itself. "You alright, Ellie?" Sarah reached out.

"Sure, yeah, I'm fine. You guys okay?"

They opened the door together to arrive at a road littered with cars. A row of ruined buildings lay across the street, and that's where they were headed. Even Ellie knew better than to walk out in the open, even in the dead of night.

And thankful they were for having good habits, as a team of search lights swept over the street. The female trio made their trip at a crouch walk, slinking barely over each window pane until they came across yet another giant sinkhole.

Making their way through a generously spaced sewer system, the ladies came across the final leg of the overall sewage route, under the grate where the unpolluted Bostonian sky smiled down upon them.

Murphy did as well, and an armored vehicle came to a stop just above the lesbian ladies below them in the waist high wastewater, which mercifully had almost no human waste due to disuse in the neighborhood. "Pack it up! Those stragglers are bound to die on their own on this night." With the sounds of opening and closing doors, their troubles had disappeared into the night.

Teamworking their way past the sewer gate, Tess, Ellie, and Sarah stepped into the shallow road cum river that intersected US interstate 90. Said freeway had collapsed already in front of them, and led the way to a pair of skyscrapers, one leaning on the other for support.

Ellie enjoyed the sight, and jogged towards them. The women followed, and all three came across a silent pair of skyscrapers, one tower leaning into another. The walls of one edifice on their level were busted open, most likely from military ordnance, and the travelers took advantage of this insertion point to use the building as a giant staircase down to ground level.

Eyes peeled, Tess and Sarah began putting their rifles to good use for their intended purpose, and began sweeping the area for any **op** posing **for** ces. Many dead ends were encountered, forcing them to find alternate routes; a set of stairs here, a broken barricade used to go down there, and yet no resistance was met so far. They came across a door heavily encrusted with an unrecognizable body slumped against it.

"Show off to our escort some of your skills." Tess placed a hand on Ellie's chest, pulling her back away from the door. Taking the cue, Sarah got into a loose stance, and took a shuffle step toward the door and thrust a side kick right next to the doorknob. Tess had already covered entries behind them for any opfors that might have been alerted by the noise, and Sarah aimed her weapon into the fatal funnel doorway that she just opened.

Once they were ready, Tess followed up from behind and with Sarah in front as pointwoman. With her offhand, Tess lightly slapped Sarah's shoulder, and Sarah penetrated the room and took the left side; Tess immediately covered the right. Once they confirmed the area was clear, Ellie followed and they continued their journey employing the same breaching tactics.

They descended further into the building, reaching a metro station that was probably part of the subway. With no bodies in sight, they came to the last portion of their stay in this skyscraper, only to see somebody standing at the exit with the pale morning light silhouetting their slack posture. Tess and Sarah flanked the body on both sides, and came up slowly to find the body impaled at the spine, held up by the cause of its death. The shriveled skin indicated that it was dead for some time, and posed no threat. They climbed up the wall with the placed ladder, and dropped down into the open-air train tracks.

The three hopped from roof to roof, finally arriving at the flooded street in front of the capitol building. It was bright and sunny, but still cool in the morning, and all three of them took some time warming up in the sunlight, and drying their wet clothes. It was a luxury of time that they should not really afford before the task was completed, but they afforded it anyway because it felt right.

"So what's waiting for you in here? You some VIP's daughter?" Tess asked offhand.

"Something like that. Marlene said she was moving out west soon, with some Firefly doctors, and I was to meet a full team of Firefly escorts here to take me across the country."

"Did she say when she was skipping town?" Sarah turned fully to give Ellie her undivided attention. Tess began to rise and come up to Ellie's side. "Yeah, when was she going to tell us all this?"

Ellie recoiled back from Tess and into Sarah's arms and legs. "Woah, woah hold on, no one's setting you guys up. You know where Marlene's hideout is, and even if she ran, all your stuff should still be there... right? And besides, if they don't pay you, you can just hold onto me before the deal was done."

"Ohh, goddammit. Either we trust Marlene to keep her word, or we fight our way back to what's owed us." Sarah slumped back on the concrete, covering her eyes from the frustration piling up. She cared not that her legs were open with Ellie in between them, and let the tension flow through and power her aching muscles. Tess sighed, and decided after a pause that they might as well do what they came here for. "We can cross those bridges when we get there. Come on, Ellie, let's get you inside." Tess opened the door and led the way in.

Only to be greeted with a volley of rifle rounds into her chest. Sarah immediately fired back, killing one from the grounded position she was in, and another from kneeling. Tess shot back at another and killed one with a headshot, before the last uniform hit her in the neck with a stray shot.

Sarah shot the last one with the remainder of her magazine, two into the sternum and the rest dumped into the head. She continued fingering her locked trigger, and checked for any other able bodies. She noticed ahead of the uniformed ambush party lay plainclothes corpses with fresh pools of blood, most likely Fireflies. She thought about examining them to piece together a story, until she came back to "TESS!"

Sarah rushed to her downed partner's side, where she saw her neck was open and bleeding bright red arterial blood. Sarah applied pressure to Tess's neck. "No, no, no, no, no. Not like this, goddammit. Tess, Tess, I love you! I loved you all this time but I was so afraid it would all go wrong! I was happy just being with you all this time that I didn't want to ruin what we got! Tess, i-"

And just like that, she was gone. A blank stare, pupils dilated, pointed back at her. No "I love you too"s, no kisses, not even a hug from the almost instantaneous slipping away of Tess's life.

Ellie thought people were supposed to look peaceful when they died. All she saw was panic, surprise, regret, and anguish etched on Tess's last face. The face was one that she knew right away would haunt her for a long time.

But time was of the essence. They heard the amphibious armored vehicle roll into the water, and saw it making a beeline through the pond and toward the steps. Ellie shut the doors, and pulled on Sarah to get back up. Despondent as she was, Sarah still listened to reason and followed Ellie by the hand up the steps inside the building.

Ellie needed to be the guardian here and guide the catatonic Sarah out of trouble, but there was a group of gunmen ahead of them that apparently survived the gunfight with the Fireflies, judging by the mass of bodies on both sides all throughout the hallway.

While Ellie formulated a speedy run through the puzzle that was troop placement and their lines of sight, Sarah stood up from cover and walked past her into the foray. Sarah began firing into the group, hitting most members at least once before they even had a chance to aim. Sarah hid behind a pillar during the initial reactionary burst, and fired from her left shoulder just peeking out of the pillar's cover. 

Six shots rang out from Sarah's left side, and she hid back behind the pillar. She replaced her hands on the rifle and fired six more rhythmic shots off her right shoulder. She fired the remainder of her mag into the barricades to elicit a reaction from any survivors of her onslaught, and with no response, she power-walked to cover ahead and changed magazines concurrently. 

Ellie followed suit, sans weapon, and stuck to Sarah's last cover spot as Sarah single-mindedly pushed forward. The two dropped down a collapsed stairwell, and came to an exhibit hall. Sarah rushed straight down the middle of the three halls and began firing at the new group blocking the egress point. They fired back a bit more quickly than the first group, and Sarah sidestepped to the left while shouldering her rifle to the left as well.

At a steady but rapid walk, Sarah mowed down the uniforms with her right offhand tracking the opfor to her right much more easily than they did her, as their mostly right handed grips were slower on the aim. Thirty rounds later, no one stood in her way. Ellie thought of scavenging useful body armor and ammunition off the fresh kills, but a contingent of footsoldiers were right on their asses, and Sarah dragged her ward by the sleeve out to the subway entrance. Sarah made an executive decision, and barrel rolled into the foliage near the stairwell. 

They waited in the foliage silently, and a moment later saw the APC from earlier aim into the subway stairs with its Browning machinegun and take blind potshots into it. The men and women from earlier chased phantoms down underground in a flight of panic and fervour, and the armored personnel carrier continued scouting ahead.

Sarah and Ellie went through the brush and finally hit city limits, feeling the relief of making it out to open air. Sarah had never let go of Ellie's long sleeve, and was now gripping it even more tightly. "You're not telling me everything. I want you to tell me the truth, now."

Ellie offered only a little resistance, but did not want to get into the whole issue. "It's complicated. I was supposed to go west to a hospital for treatment, but now I'm all alone here and I don't know what to do!"

"What treatment?

Ellie grabbed Sarah's gripping hand, and softly but firmly implored her to let go. As Sarah did, Ellie looked her in the eyes with that innocent doe face, softening the blow of what was to come. She pulled her sleeve back, to show the sores of infection inside her forearm. 

Sarah almost shouldered her rifle, confused and shaken by the realization that she was in physical contact with an infected girl this whole time, and now she could be a carrier of-

Wait, infected victims die within hours. It's been nearly a day with no signs. "How long have you had this?"

"Three weeks. I was bitten three weeks ago, and the infection stopped growing. That's why Marlene risked everything to get me here, and that's why I know she wasn't lying to you guys, because this is too important to mess up. She couldn't even trust her guys who were still in the QZ because her most trusted guys were out on another assignment by the time she learned about my situation. That's why she hired you."

Sarah had to sit down. So she's escorting the saviour of the human race, and now it's all on her whether humanity lives like rats or like human beings again.

_Tess, what would you have done if I took that bullet instead? Would you have stepped up to be the heroine of this story?_

One thing she wouldn't do is sit and mope, no matter how easy and comforting it felt. "We're heading west," Sarah said, and offered Ellie her hand.

Ellie took it, and felt warmth travel through her body at Sarah's acceptance, both of the task ahead and of whom she was. For some reason, this reminded her of the deal they had about touching Sarah's breasts if they made it here alive, but with what happened with Tess, lewd conduct did not fit the mood right at the moment.

She settled her fingers to interlace with Sarah's, and clung her body and other hand to Sarah's arm, nuzzling her body closely to Sarah's. They set out on foot with the summer sun lighting their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to https://www.primagames.com/games/last-us/walkthrough/last-us-remastered-walkthrough-chapter-3-outskirts-safe-location-and-combination and https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLTcoRMwrX2Dj-HDBdpegqWUviyw-ITiGe&v=fSQ0ZWS8smY for reminding me the sequence of what happens in the Boston night route.


	5. Chapter 5

The whole walk to the nearest town was silent. At first they followed the road far enough outside the city to come across a rest area, already abandoned and cleared of supplies, and napped for less than an hour. Ellie quickly forgot her worries and kept up in high spirits, while Sarah used her distress at losing her partner and closest friend as fuel to keep her legs moving and her eyes peeled open.

Finally they passed the sign that said "Welcome to Lincoln" and Sarah veered off-road and into a ravine. "There's a guy I know in this town. He might help us find some Fireflies out west. He spooks easily, and trusts almost no one, so don't tell him about what you showed me, alright?"

"Yeah, I won't show him." Ellie never took her eyes off the trail. "But if he's a guy, wouldn't it be safer if I showed him how untouchable I am?" She minced no words as to how she saw herself, and felt guilty at making Sarah feel uncomfortable about the topic, but she couldn't help herself and continued anyway. "I mean, as long as he doesn't kill me right away, making it known that I'm a genetic freak might show him just how serious this matter is."

Sarah stopped in her tracks as Ellie passed her ahead on the hill. Ellie turned back to see Sarah staring back at her with unfocused eyes. "What is your problem? I thought you already know just how important you are to the world; why would you bring yourself down like that?"

Ellie almost began tearing up at being called out on her depressing self-deprecation, "Even you nearly pulled your gun on me when I showed you what I am. Don't pretend you don't see me as a dangerous threat now...."

CLUMP

Sarah's rifle was tossed nonchalantly at Ellie's feet, who stood on higher ground than Sarah did, matching them eye to eye. Sarah took off her plate carrier and cummerbund and also dropped them at Ellie's side.

Sarah came right up to Ellie, and leveled her breasts up to the shorter girl's eye level. "I don't want to hear you devalue your life like that ever again. You're going to get yourself killed with that self-fulfilling crap, and I won't have it. Do I make myself clear?"

Ellie looked away, and kept her ground. She never gave an appropriate answer, but a cheeky grin arose and she said, "You know...you never let me touch your boobs yet. Have I been a good enough girl or should I have done better?"

Sarah stared at the top of Ellie's head for a bit. She used a hand on Ellie's chin to gently force a look into Ellie's eyes, and kept staring until the cracks of a smile began to leak out her mouth as well. She pulled one side of her shirt up, and invited Ellie to touch her exposed breast. "I knew I liked something about you, kid." With that, the woman also slid her hand under Ellie's shirt, and reached for the girl's tender chest.

"Hey, that wasn't the deal! You gotta to buy me dinner with a good night kiss before getting this far with me...." Ellie went silent and turned her head away at that, hoping her slight fluster would go away before Sarah noticed.

But Sarah did, and she turned Ellie's head with both hands and stared straight into her eyes. Ellie's began to rise in panic as she could tell Sarah was going to call her bluff. "W-wait! I don't know if I can infect you by spit or not! I was just kidding! Don-"

Lips met lips. Ellie's mouth had stuck into an O face for so long, she didn't realize Sarah had opened her jaw up with her tongue, tilting her head to slather the inside of Ellie's teeth and tongue - top and bottom - with Sarah's own. It felt like nothing ever before, not even when she had her first with Riley the night when both girls were bitten, and that was before anyone was carrying a transmittable disease.

Ellie tried pressing her forceful kisser up off her, trying to convince the woman to have some sense. Instead, all she succeeded in doing was toppling onto her rump with the bigger woman on top of her. Sarah kept her body heavy on Ellie's hips between her opened legs, and intentionally placed her substantial bust on top of Ellie's ribcage so there was no comfortable space between the girl's and woman's bodies.

 _She's going to die! Is she retarded?_ She began hitting Sarah from the bottom, tears welling in her eyes at the frustration, and finally grabbed the exposed breast to get Sarah to comply through pain.

But whereas Ellie painfully tried to get Sarah off her, Sarah gently and caringly kneaded Ellie's nipples, cupping the slight breasts under her shirt and gave them slow squeezes during the deep French kiss. Ellie finally gave up trying to peel Sarah off of her, and draped her arms over her kisser's shoulders as acceptance. 

When the child calmed down, Sarah pulled her head up to regard Ellie's mien. She had streaks of tears down the sides of her face, and for a moment Sarah dreaded the possibility that she had gone too far and outright violated an underage child out of her innocence. 

No worries were spared for possibility of infection, as her old life had died with Tess bleeding out on the floor of Boston City Hall; if Sarah died because of this, at least she died trying to make a scared little girl feel wanted again. But most importantly, she didn't hold herself back from a decision she would have regretted not making.

Ellie sniffled, and Sarah thought she saw her lips form an unuttered "thank you." She smiled, and the girl underneath returned it. "H-hey, can...can I touch your boobs again?" 

Sarah raised her legs up from between Ellie's thighs to over Ellie's hips, basing her hands off to both sides of Ellie's head. Her breasts drooped down towards Ellie's eager face, and waited for her younger sexual partner to make a move on her. 

Ellie leisurely brought her hands up under Sarah's shirt and cupped her mounds of soft, squishy adipose tissue in each hand. Only a couple squeezes and a nipple pinch or two, and Ellie elected to pull Sarah's shirt up to see Sarah's boobs in all their weighty majesty.

Sarah pulled her shirt all the way off, and draped her tits onto Ellie's face, lightly dipping them on her cheeks, her nose, her forehead, and her chin. Ellie for her part kept her composure and guided Sarah's hanging breasts to her lips and tongue, suckling on the woman's teats with voracity.

Sarah stared down at her child lover's upper face as she sucked on her tits. She felt an instinctual sense of fulfillment and joy at the sight and began to vibrate her hips, as if they were moving on their own. Ellie moved from left to right and right to left nipple, and finally drew her tongue out as far as she could to lick Sarah's breasts all over. 

From the fold underneath, straight up to scrape her semi-dried tongue across the nipple, into the inside where Ellie strained her neck to kiss the center valley between breasts, and outward to lick and nip at the edge of Sarah's pectoral, taking in a good sniff of Sarah's armpit scent. 

Sensing the stress on the girl's neck, Sarah accommodated her underage lover and rolled to reverse positions, so Ellie was now in between Sarah's legs and on top. The woman raised her arms behind her head, giving Ellie a seductive view of Sarah's face, armpits, and breasts parted down the middle. Each mammary cascaded down its respective side over her ribcage, and offered a sight the young girl couldn't pass up. 

Ellie dove in, forehead into sternum, taking in the smell and feel of large breasts on either side of her head. The girl used her arms on both boobs to smother herself in Sarah's buxom cleavage, and on her knees she brought her lips up to Sarah's throat, chin, and again the lips. As they kissed, Ellie played with Sarah's bountiful chest, circling them inward and outward to memorize the feel of her squishy, soft lumps. 

She moved her sucker from womanly lips to one pert nipple to the other, in as many permutations and combinations as she could think of. After an eternity of literally exhausting her options, Ellie laid her head on Sarah's heaving chest to rest.

As Ellie's head fell heavier to one side, namely onto Sarah's right teat, the older female oriented both their bodies to their sides and allowed the girl to rest her head on the pillow that was Sarah's right breast; Ellie's face would be covered by Sarah's left tit, but Ellie just sighed comfortably in her newfound lover's embrace.

Sarah looked up at the night sky, and swelled with lustful pride. _So, I'm a full blown ephebophile now, huh? Not bad. It'll be something I can work with._

"I knew I liked this kid."

And with those words, the two fell asleep into each other's embrace.

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»

Sarah awoke to a body with very localized areas of pain and pleasure. Where her body made contact with a sleeping Ellie, her skin felt enriched and refreshed, ready to enjoy the new day's experiences. Everywhere else however felt like dog shit.

The two females had passed out from physiological and psychological exhaustion, right on the side of the road on a grassy knoll. Ellie kept her clothes on, but Sarah was topless the whole night and would probably feel the bug bites later throughout the day.

She also felt sore all over, but could recognize it as the aftereffects of the adrenaline dump from escaping Boston. Lactic acid and LDL replaced dopamine, norepinephrine, and HDL that had built up in Sarah's muscles and liver in the previous two days. At that, her thoughts turned to Ellie, her new...lover? girlfriend? partner?

"How your sleep, Sarah?" an already awake Ellie greeted the woman next to her with a kiss to the chest, and smiled as she pulled her head back and looked into her eyes intimately.

_She's my Ellie._

"I feel amazing, Ellie," Sarah responded back. She combed Ellie's hair with her hand and caressed her cheeks, and kissed her on the lips once again. She let out a groan as she shifted her weight to get up, but thought of a better idea. "Ellie, are you feeling cold?"

"Nnn...maybe a bit yeah." Ellie was a tad confused, at first, but quickly understood Sarah's implication. She began stripping her articles of clothing, down to just her panties, and laid her skin over Sarah's as much as possible. She began peppering her with kisses, rubbing each other's bare breasts and stomachs together for friction and shared warmth.

Sarah draped her cold and stiff arms over Ellie's back and legs, using the girl in more ways than one for her own pleasure. She drew her palms over the breadth of Ellie's back, smoothed over her shoulders and armpits, fondled Ellie's pert, flat chest to her hands' delight, and squeezed Ellie's taut but still soft tush.

With one hand covering Ellie's ass crack, Sarah began rubbing her young lover's crotch through the underwear from the front with the other, hand on the vulva and thumb over Ellie's clitoris while moving her fingers over the vaginal opening and perineum, rubbing up and down until she began to feel the signs of moisture. Sarah kept her hands on Ellie's panties where her lady parts throbbed with eager attention, and Ellie latched onto Sarah's bare chest and shoulders as if her life depended on it.

Thinking better than to stick unsanitary fingers into Ellie's most likely virgin vagina, Sarah elected to do the deed properly and took off Ellie's panties swiftly. She brought the girl's hips over her head, and went to town.

"W-w-woah, Sarah! What are you...." The woman lapped at Ellie's vaginal folds, slurping up juices when they built up at the entrance, and Sarah's mouth and tongue began to explore the girl's lower region. She licked and sucked on both sides of Ellie's labia, ending with a flourish on her clitoral hood up top. Left labia, right labia, straight up the pipe. Every time pulling the hood off the clitoris just a bit more.

Sarah decided enough was enough, and puckered over Ellie's clitoris directly to suck on it like a vacuum. Ellie moaned and groaned cutely through her closed mouth, her body a tripod erected up by her knees and head because her hands latched onto Sarah's head. She rhythmically lowered her hips and pressed her pussy deeper into Sarah's face, desperately wanting more pressure into her nether regions.

"Mmmmmnnnnnnnh." She exclaimed joyously, cumming for the first time by someone other than her own hand, and realized the woman underneath did not relent with her onslaught. She felt the bottom of her vagina resting on Sarah's chin, and her inner vaginal cavity being penetrated by Sarah's tongue. Sarah licked with a goal in mind, apparently attempting to reach her...

"Nnnh, ohhhhhhhh...." She felt Sarah reach her G spot, with apparently her long and dexterous tongue, and Ellie couldn't get enough. She felt herself climbing the wall quickly, and focused on nothing but her pleasure at this very moment. "Mmmmmmm, I...love...you...Sarah...."

At that Sarah upped her licking to a frantic pace, and used her hands to both pull Ellie's hips into her mouth and rub just above Ellie's clit to send her over the edge. Ellie hit the wall hard and careened over the top, ending with her second, explosive orgasm into Sarah's mouth. She fell onto her hands and knees, hips bucking at the aftershock of her release, and waited oh so patiently for Sarah to finish cleaning her up.

Sarah slurped up Ellie's flavorful ejaculate, and sealed her mouth over Ellie's entire vagina to get all her juices out. Sarah licked all over the surrounding vulva area and lastly needed to wipe her own face from Ellie's fluids. Seeing no need to use her hands, Sarah wiped her face with Ellie's reddened pussy, educing a twitch with every pass, and finally ate up the last streak of Ellie's cum.

She finished the job with a nice, slow, wet kiss, Sarah's lips suckling on Ellie's _lips_ , and spanked Ellie's ass lightly with both hands from the bottom.

"Come on, lover. Let's go see Bill."


	6. Chapter 6

"Where are you from? How old are you? What did you do before? Where exactly are you going? What kind of foods do you like? What type of girls do you like?"

Ellie began her barrage of questions for Sarah, drunk on losing her virginity to her mentor figure and doing everything she could to engulf Sarah's arm with her entire body. They continued their walk into Bill's town on light feet and even lighter moods. Sarah felt at ease after the previous afternoon had broken her dour mood, and obliged Ellie with answers.

"Alright now princess, slow down. One question at a time." Sarah patted Ellie's tummy playfully. 

"Where are you from?" the juvenile asked. They continued to the center of the suburb of Lincoln, still enjoying the safety of the trees and woods in the refreshing mid morning.

"I'm from Texas, baby girl. Land of steers and queers." Sarah noticed the wrinkling of Ellie's cherubic nose, "Ah, that was a movie reference. 'Full Metal Jacket,' apparently. Never really got to see it myself. Which brings us to the next question, something about my age?"

Ellie unabashedly wagged her head up and down in confirmation. Sarah chuckled, "You know, asking a lady her exact age is pretty rude, though I guess no one can teach manners the old-fashioned way nowadays." 

Ellie repeated her look of befuddlement; Sarah rolled her head in exasperation, "Agh, somewhere shy of thirty, and I was only a young girl when it all started, about nine or ten. I forgot my exact birth date a long time ago."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Sarah." Ellie couldn't help but rub Sarah's arm consolingly. "If it matters, I'm fourteen. You were even younger than I am now when the world crumbled. I can't even imagine how hard it must have been for you; at least for me this is all I know, but you have the old life to compare with how it is now."

Sarah didn't need telling twice how hard having to rebuild her life from scratch was. There were times while surviving when she felt like dropping everything, where she wanted to concede to the relentless gauntlet of violence that life had in store for her the last twenty years. But none of that mattered, it _can't_ matter, at least for Ellie's sake here and now.

"Well, I'm literally over twice your age now, so I think I'll be fine. You don't gotta worry about me darling. Let me worry about you." 

Ellie hummed in acknowledgement, gently inserting her hand into Sarah's t-shirt and caressing her tummy in a reserved manner not very fitting with the quite intimate act. Sarah was surprised she did not reflexively bristle at the touch; she always did whenever she was touched by Te... "So what were the other questions?"

"Erm, what did you do before everything went to shit? Though I guess that's not really a good question if you were a kid then," Ellie conceded. 

"I played girls soccer. I was pretty good, too. Won state a couple times," Sarah reminisced.

"What's 'state'?" Ellie asked.

"State championships. Meaning we beat out other teams in the state. Smaller than that is 'county,' but bigger than state is 'nationals'; there's 'internationals' or 'worlds,' but we were kids so I don't think it would have gone that far," Sarah responded. 

"That's impressive," Ellie remarked. A rather long silence filled the air until she continued her inquiry: "Where exactly are we going to in this town?"

Sarah guessed Ellie would have asked more questions if she had more of a concept of what competitive sports was like, or even if she knew what association football was actually about. 

"Going to visit my friend Bill," Sarah cut the explanation short.

"What kind of foods do you like?"

"I honestly don't remember. Fresh fruits and vegetables when we get the chance," Sarah said. She knew a large black market for produce extended well into containment zones like Boston, and hoped Ellie would learn to take advantage of it in the future. 

"Hmm, that does sound good," Ellie stated. Sarah smiled that the meme had been planted in the young girl's mind, and hoped it would stick. 

"What type of girls do you like?"

Ellie felt her legs come to a halt as the stronger Sarah brought them to a complete stop. "I like you, and that's all that matters. How about you? You look at other girls?"

Ellie flustered, "Uhhh, no, well, I just, uh...wait, I didn't mean it like that!"

Ellie suddenly found herself upside down, held up by the waist. Sarah had wrapped her arms around Ellie's waist and gripped her hands on the small of Ellie's back, and lifted her with the body lock in basically an inverted Karelin lift. 

_Honestly you're the first girlfriend or boyfriend I've ever had in my life_ , Sarah thought inwardly and began motorboating Ellie's crotch with a genuine smile broadening her face. "Don't thrash too much or I'll tombstone piledriver you on your head by accident."

For some reason it seemed as though Ellie immediately knew what that phrase meant and she stopped fidgeting entirely. Though perhaps the term sounded so dire that it literally flabbergasted the poor girl. With that she began walking, still carrying Ellie's entire body in the standing 69 position.

"are you seriously going to keep me like this the whole time?" came Ellie's slightly muffled voice from down under. It was Sarah's turn to have a giggle. They pressed forward for a short distance, Sarah smiling into the crux of Ellie's thighs until the woman's lower back felt the inklings of strain, and so she set her young companion down.

The two were back to the good mood from earlier in the day, and finally reached the town square. Ellie, despite having grown up in a similar urban environment her entire life, marveled at the new streets littered with new stores. Liquor stores had time worn adverts of brand name junk food that no longer existed. Music stores held instruments ravaged by time and disuse. Rows of bargain bin movies, games, and albums were now suddenly a treasure trove of priceless technological relics, almost all of which would never be experienced again.

Ellie never strayed from Sarah, and never once let go of her hand, even if she had to drag the woman wherever she wanted to go. It could have been a sense of protection or a sense of possession, but Ellie's fingers never let go of Sarah's. 

The sun began to set, about three fingers width above the horizon, which meant about forty five minutes until sunset. They wouldn't want to be open and unprotected surrounded by buildings by nightfall, so they continued their search for Bill into the back alleys while there was still sunlight.

Rigged booby traps galore, no doubt Bill's handiwork, so the leading ladies took it easy. They came across a maintenance shed with a long-dead body on the couch just outside, with a fragmented skull and the cause of self-death in hand, a gunmetal-colored revolver. Ellie carefully made her way toward the gun, with Sarah watching intently, and Ellie picked it up gently, almost as if it were diseased.

"Remember to keep the muzzle away from me and you, and never touch the trigger until you've aimed at something," Sarah lectured, giving the young girl enough berth for her to have the moment to herself. Ellie held the gun respectfully in both hands, and looked at the engravings. The make and model were scratched to illegibility, but the calibre was not, ".357, Sarah. These take .38 specials if I recall correctly."

"Impressive," Sarah said, and rubbed Ellie on the neck. "May I please have that wheelgun, babe?" 

Ellie turned to her guardian-girlfriend, and handed the weighty handgun over, grip first. "Thank you for asking politely, honey," she said half-ironically and nuzzled into the woman's hand. Despite the haphazard times they lived in, the presence of a gun made everyone stick to their best manners, changing the social dynamic dramatically. Perhaps because it was a sobering reminder of the fine line between life and mistake, some people felt a need to be on better behaviour; though with the inexperienced, the opposite usually occurred.

Sarah wrapped her arm around Ellie's shoulders, and continued forth toward the entrance of the shed with the handgun drawn. They dug up a box of corresponding ammunition from the desk inside the shed, loaded up, and arrived at the garage door. Attempting to open it, Sarah found it did not want to budge. Fancy kicks did not offer the steady push needed to open the door, so Sarah rammed her shoulder hard into the barrier thrice.

_FWIP_

The refrigerator falling was all the warning Sarah got as her leg was pulled underneath her. She barely managed to break her fall as she was pulled into the air. Ellie followed behind warily, "Oh god! Sarah! Honey, are you alright?"

"Oh, wha....goddammit Bill!" Now it was Sarah's turn to be held against her will upside down. "Ellie, baby, climb on top of that fridge and cut the rope!" As soon as Ellie was off the ground, Sarah covered her by sweeping the surrounding open area with her six shooter. Worried for outlaws and bandits, or even worse _those_ , Sarah had to willfully calm herself down to actually aim properly, as best as she could in her predicament. Even before Ellie could reach the fridge-

 _BANG. THUD. CRASH._ "OOF."

"Good Lord, Sarah is that you?" A man in full cover including gas mask came up to them with his shotgun resting on his shoulder. "Jesus Christ, girl you look like shit."

"Hello, your own damn self, Bill." Sarah felt worse for wear as she had barely managed to not land on her head and neck. Skilled as she was in many disciplines, gymnastics was not one of them. At least her ukemi saved her neck. 

"Sarah, are you okay?" Ellie practically pounced on Sarah's torso, pretty much precluding the question of concern in the first place. Ellie ran her hands over Sarah's face, neck, shoulders, arms, sides, back, front, and waist.

"I'm fine, babe," Sarah said lovingly looking into Ellie's eyes for her reassurance. She glanced over at Bill, before leaning in to kiss her girl. Ellie blushed a bit at the display of affection in front of a stranger, but held her tongue. Sarah smiled at her blushing face, and spoke to Bill without taking her eyes off her girlfriend, "No need to worry about her, Bill. She's clean, so please put your gun down."

Ellie's head jerked instantly to Bill, who almost re-shouldered his long arm at the sudden movement. "Hey, kid, don't do that alright? And what about you, Miss R. Dubois? Or is it Missus now? You clean too?"

"If I weren't I'd have put a bullet in my brain by now. And if I were Mrs. Dubois you'd be one of the first to know," Sarah said with a grin. Bill came over and picked her up in a one armed hug. Sarah returned it with vigour, "How you doing, Billy bear?"

Bill sighed with a relieved smile, "Everyone I know around me is dead and the town's empty, so I'm living in absolute paradise. Last I've seen of anyone was you running off with Tess a month or so ago. Speaking of, where is she, and who's this?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197338-final-fantasy-ix/faqs/42207?print=1 for the Eiko questions (MS01).


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey, I'm Ellie, nice to meet you," she said with her hands neatly together in front of her.

"..." Bill looked her up and down, not in a curious way, but in a manner more fitting to a doctor. Ellie started to feel a bit anxious, and was about to internalize the silent snub until her woman came to her rescue.

Sarah poked Bill in the dick, "Say hi back, don't be rude." Bill broke his gaze, and looked down at his friend before regarding the newcomer again, "Sorry, kid. The name's Bill. Good to meet you too."

Ellie smiled and almost reached her hand out, but understood from his demeanor that that probably would not have been a good idea. Bill checked his now used trap, and mentally checked it off, "You two, follow me before it gets dark."

Passing through ravines and fences, the party of three made their way to a rooftop, where on a sofa they found yet another soul who took his or her life. Next to the skeleton was a bow and arrows, and Ellie reached out to take them.

"Careful, kid," both Bill and Sarah warned. "What? It's just a bow and arrow," Ellie shot back.

Sarah sighed, "That's exactly why I said to be careful, because you're not taking the weapon seriously." She came over and took the weapon system before Ellie, and scooched her on the butt, "Get a move on, we need to cross those rooftops."

Climbing debris to make their way up, the three came upon a body huddled in the corner on a lower roof. They stopped, but heard no breathing or fidgeting, and saw no movement. Sarah handed Ellie the bow and arrow. "Shoot first, ask later," she lectured. 

"Wait, what if he's not a bad guy?" Ellie asked. The response she got from the two adults was a blank stare. Taking the looks as an imperative to fire, Ellie drew the bow back and released; it missed by a hair next to the unknown person's head.

Bill went over with a shotgun in one hand pointed at the body, and with his offhand he used a baseball bat to turn the figure around. The body was a scarecrow decoy filled with straw, and everyone's eyes opened widely.

The three of them ducked and took cover, initially fearing a sniper. "We have to get off these roofs," Sarah whispered. The man and girl nodded in unison, and the three ran in a crouch to the end of the row of buildings. Taking a broken ladder down halfway, they dropped to ground level and made their way into a bar and grill, and then a smaller diner.

A windowsill was drenched in dried blood, but with nothing else out of the ordinary. "Honestly I felt safer back when I had those things around to keep others away. Now I have to rely on booby traps and kill off as many tourists as I can before they send word back about this place," Bill grimaced.

They peeked out the front door, and saw the open street in front of them, across from which lay a shed and the entrance to a church. "Don't worry about the shed; I've cleared all these places out of useful shit. Head straight for the chapel, and stick to my butt or Sarah's the whole time, got that kid?"

"Will do," Ellie responded, noting that the latter choice was better for many convincing reasons. She put the nagging question in her mind away of how Sarah and Bill were so close, and if the two had a history together.

"Move," Sarah started, heading up the front as pointwoman, Ellie almost attached to her hip, and Bill bringing up the boot. They stayed close to the derelict vehicles until they reached the gate, where Bill had his key ready to unlock. The three opened the gate, and once on the other side, Bill quickly relocked it. They continued their journey to the place of worship.

"Did you see anyone?" Bill asked. "No," Sarah relayed.

At that, Bill let out a small breath of relief. "Maybe it was one of Frank's traps he never got around to telling me," Bill said. Sarah followed wordlessly.

She took a look at her girlfriend, and saw Ellie had no compunction to inquire further on who Frank was. Sarah touched Ellie's shoulder and rubbed it gently, and when the girl looked back at the woman, the elder female silently smiled at her younger ward.

When the three arrived at a cellar door, Bill took the lead and switched places with Sarah. He opened, and she shut the doors. Inside, Ellie noticed stacks of books and magazines, some of which featured muscled, shirtless men on the cover. Ellie instinctively let out a small sigh of relief, not fully understanding why.

"So what's the plan, chief?" Bill asked now that they were in a safehouse.

"We need a car that works. I need to transport the little one out west. I'll spare you the details," Sarah remarked.

Bill chuckled in disbelief, "Holy hell, Sarah. I'd have believed Tess trying this shit, but never thought I'd see you doing something this retarded. Speaking of, why isn't she with us?"

Sarah came up to Bill's side, and leaned on the wall, "That's because she's not with us anymore, Bill." Ellie's eyes turned downcast, and Bill got the meaning. "Oh, I'm sorry Sarah, do you need to talk about this, or-"

"I'll be fine, Billy," Sarah spit out, ending that conversation then and there. 

Letting out a stream of breath, Bill said, "Alright, I got you. But if we're going to do this, we'll need to bring everything to the table." Sarah bristled, hoping not to have to explain herself, or her young lover's condition, but relaxed when Bill laid a shotgun on the table, with a bucket full of shot shells.

"Is this for me?" Sarah asked. "That's your old one, so yeah of course you can have it," Bill stated, "You brought these two Mossbergs in during your exile from Beantown, so you get to keep it. Ah, I've got something to show you." He went around the corner to fetch his item.

"Exile?" Ellie asked in a hushed voice. Sarah responded in a normal volume, "The commandant of Boston about a year ago had it out for my head, but it got pretty bad at some point so I came up here to Bill's for quite some time until things settled (when he was killed, either by someone else or by himself). Tess and I had been trading with Bill for years, so they didn't mind me shacking up here with them."

"They?" Ellie asked. Sarah mentally slapped herself upside the head for the slip. She was about to enter damage control mode, before Bill came around the corner.

"Me, and my old partner Frank. We were partners in the same way Sarah and...Tess were."

Ellie began to feel slightly flustered and hot from her head. Not only was she done battling the jealousy she felt about Bill before, but the surprise with Tess was beginning to be a bit too much for her fourteen year old self. Maybe she was just being immature, she chided herself, and tried her best not to show tears.

"We, uh, never made it official," Sarah mentioned, "We could never even mention dating or relationships with a straight face, so we never even kissed. I was never her girlfriend."

Ellie slowly looked up at Sarah with her wet doey green eyes, and unwittingly loosed a sniffle. She damned her body for not keeping it together, but Sarah found it endearing and came to a kneel in front of her. "I've got you now, Ellie. You're my first, but I want to keep you as my last for as long as you'll have me. What do you say, champ?"

Ellie felt an undue sense of joy at that admission, and wrapped her arms around Sarah's shoulders, and gave her a kiss with closed eyes, which Sarah gave back with love.

"Alright, alright. I know this is a Catholic building we're in now, but let's keep the pederasty to a minimum, okay?" Bill interrupted.

Taking that as a challenge, Sarah sat back and winked at Ellie, and lifted her to sitting position on the table's lip. They continued their kiss but much more affectionately, and Sarah added audible moans for added emphasis. Ellie felt Sarah's hand on her breast, pushing her onto her back on the table, seeing Bill above and behind her head. "Uh, heh heh," Ellie let out embarrassedly as Sarah went down to kiss her bare tummy, the girl at least attempting a bit of modesty.

Then she felt her legs pushed up to her shoulders. Her eyes widened as Sarah grabbed her ankles and pinned Ellie's body into a horseshoe. Sarah dug in and moaned wetly into Ellie's vulva, blowing into her pants crotch like a she would a balloon. Ellie let out a sharp groan and tried to push Sarah's head away, but found her arms trapped under her legs and could do nothing. She at least could cover her face in embarrassment, and did so to spare herself the look on Bill's face.

Sarah, however, enjoyed the shocked countenance on Bill, and rested her chin on Ellie's perineum to correct his last statement, "Pederasty is male homosexual pedophilia; this is girls love, and knows no age difference. Much like with pederasty in Greece, in Japan this relationship was considered beneficial to the younger partner in helping her mature into a fine lady. You're not being racist, now, are ya Bill?"

Bill meekly put his show and tell item away, and excused himself out of the floor, "I'll be upstairs when you lesbos are done."

The two lovers looked to their side at the staircase he ascended, and then back at each other. They broke down into giggles as they kissed again. Ellie wrapped her arms around Sarah, and Sarah reached for Ellie's belt loops, lifting the smaller girl onto her hips in a frontal piggyback to climb the stairs and meet with Bill again.


	8. Chapter 8

Sarah carried Ellie up the stairs into the main chapel of Bill's home. The elder of the couple held up the minor by the crooks of her knees, while the younger auburnette clinched her hands behind the dirty blonde's neck at the nape. With Ellie's legs spread far and wide open and supported up mainly by Sarah's arms, Ellie's crotch naturally rocked up and down onto Sarah's as the latter's legs climbed up each step of the church stairs.

Ellie hungrily devoured Sarah's lips, playing with her tongue with wanton disregard for the scene they were in. Sarah, however, did have a modicum of respect for Bill's humble abode and gently let Ellie down to her feet. Her head crooning forward and downward to meet the lips of her smaller girlfriend, Sarah let go of the lip lock and closed the distance with a warm hug and a kiss on Ellie's forehead.

"Let's show Bill's home a little bit of modesty, what do you say, kid?" Sarah proffered. Ellie for her part didn't voice any of her disappointment aloud, and offered a couple shaking nods of assent. The two ladies walked up to the altar on the second floor, where Bill awaited.

"If you've got any sins to confess, now would be the time, ladies," Bill offered. He leaned onto the open door frame into another room and continued, "So the plan is we hit up a recent APC (armored personnel carrier) that decided to ram itself into the side of Lincoln High [School]. You'd be amazed at the stuff those vultures leave behind when they turn tail. Now I figure there's still some juice in that battery, so we take it over to a lighter vehicle so you two can take your suicide mission on the road."

The two adults plus one gathered in front of the cross at the front of the chamber, laying out all their arsenal to get a sense of where they stood. Sarah brought out her 9x19mm single stack 1911 and snubby .357mag revolver (make and model etched out). Bill laid out the two Mossbergs, his own hunting pistol, and his kukri knife.

Eyes darting between the two, Ellie brought out her fixed switchblade and laid it next to Sarah's guns. Her older girlfriend lovingly stroked Ellie's hair and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "That's what we got so far, Bill. You reckon this'll be enough?"

It was still dark out, with the chapel illuminated mostly with homemade or repurposed candles Bill had set up. "This should be more than enough and the second shotgun is yours Sarah," Bill stated. It would behoove them all to wait until early morning when the fresh dew would stiffen whatever organic obstacles would be in their way. Bill offered his bedroom to the girls, but with some conditions.

"I don't want hear any sounds of you two making whoopie in there; those beds are for rest only. I know the mattresses and sheets aren't brand-spanking new, but I'd like them clear of bodily fluids, thank you very much in advance," Bill outlined.

"I don't think we'll really need a blanket in this summer weather," Sarah commented, "Besides, if I recall correctly there's another mattress for you to sleep in with us, Bill."

Sarah noted Ellie's slight squint of hesitation on her brow, "Ellie, relax baby girl. I'll be in the same bed as you, and Bill is as harmless as they come when it comes to the opposite sex. Ain't that right, Bill?"

The man moved closer and addressed in a clear, even tone, "I'm gay, Ellie. Exclusively homosexual as I've found out about myself the past thirty some odd years. Your predatory lover and I have slept in the same bed for months with nary a wavering hand between the two of us. If my morning wood wouldn't act on a piece of ass like Sarah at any point, I think it's safe to say I pass the gay test."

"Bill...," Sarah warned. Bill chortled, "Heh heh heh, sorry kid. I forget myself sometimes. Happens when you grow old I guess." With that, the man retired to his bedchambers and the two young women followed him in. Inside the bedroom were a couple mattresses with gray sheets, newspapers and magazine stacks, and of course more candles. Ellie could have sworn she saw a skull somewhere, but she began to think maybe the comic books were starting to rot her brain. She's gotta learn to stop reading so much, she surmised.

"Let's get some sleep, hit the school in the morning, and see if there's a car around one of these homes with some gas in them that hasn't turned to sugar water yet," Bill said as he lay on a mattress, "Good night."

"'Night," the women answered in unison. In doing so, Sarah squeezed her arm around Ellie's shoulder softly and guided the two to the other mattress. First thing they did to get comfy was of course propping their guns on their corner of the room, and next was divesting themselves of their shackles of restraint, their pants.

Liberated from the oppressive pant legs, the two plopped onto bed and rubbed bare legs together, relishing in the simultaneously cool and warming sensation that only skin on skin contact could provide. Ellie's mouth rubbed up to Sarah's lips, not quite a kiss but definitely in close enough contact where smiles could be felt without opening their eyes. 

The two were about to let sleep overtake them, when they heard a loud snore and snort from the other end of the antechamber. They would ignore it the best they could, but the sound of bodily functions coming from the one male in the room made the two females really wish they could let 'er rip as freely as Bill seemed to do so without even trying. Gay, bi or not, Bill was a man through and through.

It wouldn't be until sunrise that the two young women would have their revenge.


	9. Chapter 9

"let's give bill a morning surprise. what do y'say, kiddo?" Sarah whispered into Ellie's mouth. Ellie answered with a straight kiss - without turning her head - and sat up with Sarah to follow her lead. In the dark blue of the early morning, Sarah undressed completely, dropping her panties on the pile of clothes on the bed. Ellie began doing the same, and as her panty holes cleared her legs she saw Sarah lay on her side right behind Bill's back.

Ellie warily joined Sarah on Bill's bed, and hugged her from the front such that their tummies and thighs, and their breasts and nipples rubbed against one another. Taking the lead, Sarah softly pinched Ellie's nipples with one hand and rubbed the small of her back with the other.

Sarah absorbed Ellie's moans with her mouth, and after some time she began to feel wetness emanating from Ellie's crotch on Sarah's thigh. With the hand on the same side as Ellie's outside thigh, Sarah slid her arm in between the two naked female bodies and vigorously traced the outside of Ellie's labia with her fingers.

The girl gasped for air but was quickly muffled by the woman's kiss, her tongue overpowered by the adult's. Sarah's saliva intermingled with Ellie's as the former slid a finger into the latter's most sacred area, rubbing from the inside up to just that spot that Ellie hoped for.

Hitting the best spot, Sarah relentlessly pulled her finger up into the inner front of Ellie's crotch, internally messing her up to the point where Ellie wasn't sure she could feel anything anymore. The girl noticed she wasn't making as loud a sound as she thought she was, owing to the fact that Sarah was salivating into Ellie's mouth through opened lips brought about by their passionate kiss. 

Ellie came hard, so hard that she was afraid she would drown in Sarah's mouth fluids; thankfully Sarah prevented Ellie's gag reflex by locking their lips, forcing Ellie to breathe through her nostrils. Forcefully exhaling through her nose, Ellie continued riding her orgasm blissfully unaware of where her vaginal juices would end up. Only after a pregnant pause in the action did the girl slowly gulp down their spit.

In a moment of clarity, Ellie wondered if her cumming on Bill's bed was a good idea at all. Luckily, Sarah thought ahead for that as well, collecting however much Ellie ejaculated into her hand. It was only enough to coat Sarah's hand, not enough to worry about overflowing, so the opportunity to slurp it in front of Ellie's face had escaped them both.

Instead Sarah used the coating to rub her moist hand onto Ellie's red-hot vulva, adding a glistening element to the pulsating hotness. On the edge of Bill's bed, Ellie felt utterly used up like a sexual object, and was glad down to the fiber of her being that the one who brought her to this point was the woman she loves now. 

Sarah sat up to take a look at her finished product from the front: Ellie held her arms up above her head showing her naturally bare armpits and underdeveloped breasts, truly naked and titillating in their own right, which rested atop a bare front and a tummy that led down to distinctly feminine hips, spread eagle at the juncture of the thighs to open up and show to Sarah her smooth, reddened, wet pussy.

Sarah dove back in, mouth overlapping Ellie's, hands cupping Ellie's flat breasts, pubic bone smashing Ellie's pussy. Sarah needed to finish quickly so she went down on Ellie and heartily lapped up the juvenile's juices, both that which was slathered over her vulva by Sarah's own hand and that which flowed from inside Ellie's vagina.

Pulling Ellie's hips up with her hands, Sarah greedily slurped up Ellie's bittersweet nectar and reveled at the vibrations Ellie shook out from her core. Over the crest of Ellie's mons pubis, Sarah could see the girl had bitten down on her own hand to stifle the moans Sarah made her make. The larger woman's crotch began to heat so she channeled her throbbing frustration to renewed vigour in pleasuring the smaller girl with her tongue and lips.

The young girl loosened her inner pelvic muscles and let everything she had stored up in her body go. She pushed up off the mattress and thrust her crotch into Sarah's face to make sure all her juices ejaculated into the older woman's mouth. The woman on her part drank and gulped down every last drop, ensuring none ever spilled out of her mouth and lips. She suckled on Ellie's vagina and vulva as if they were teets, extracting all the milky fluids that came forth from the girl's loins. 

Ellie completely let her body go and held out her arms expectant of a hug or loving embrace from Sarah. Sarah obliged, but Ellie did not feel the woman's larger head and face pressed up against hers, or appreciable breasts against her own, or womanly pubes rubbing gently against her labia between her spread open legs.

No, it was rather a plushy pair of butt cheeks on her lap and sinewy, broad shoulders in her face. Sarah had given herself the position of small spoon with Ellie hugging the larger woman from behind. Sarah was far from inert, however, and actively brought Ellie's hands up to grope and squeeze her own breast and tit, and the other hand down between her legs onto her pubes and vulva. 

She could feel Ellie's heart skyrocket despite the draining release a moment ago, and briefly worried she might be pushing the 14-year-old young woman too far. So Sarah waited a moment in the warmth of her lover's arms to assess the damage she may have inflicted on her underage sex partner. 

After catching her breath, the auburnette began kneading the doughy texture of Sarah's mammaries and the fleshy patch between Sarah's thighs. Sarah let out a couple groans and jerky twitches, and stretched her head back into the crook of Ellie's neck. 

Sarah sultrily whispered audibly, "Why don't we go ahead and wake up our generous host. What do you say, lover?" Ellie moaned a half-hearted reply into Sarah's neck and gave Sarah's boobs and pussy one last good squeeze and rub, bringing the latter hand up to her mouth to kiss the fingers that rubbed Sarah's vaginal folds. Sarah shivered at this, and was about to stop Ellie from going further, but was too late to stop her.

Ellie fed two digits into Sarah's slot and fished her head under Sarah's armpit to suckle on a breast. Sarah gasped almost indignantly but wrapped her hands and arms around Ellie's head and shoulders to pull their bodies tightly together. Ellie continued her manual onslaught and oral tenacity, digging the heel of her palm into Sarah's clitoral hood while penetrating the woman's slick vaginal folds as far as her inexperienced fingers could dig.

Losing herself in the frenzy of sucking on Sarah's tit, Ellie tugged on the brunette's boob with her lips and ran her tongue tip around the areola and on the button of Sarah's nipple. Finally, Ellie expertly switched her pussy grip so her thumb could pull up and expose Sarah's clitoral hood and callously mashed her thumb into and around Sarah's clitoris.

"Ohhhhhh!" Sarah yelled out, lifting her leg to let loose a squirt she had been building up the whole night. The pressure built up inside her loins loosed a hot stream of ejaculate that splashed into Ellie's cupped hand and pooled around the woman's thighs. Ellie panicked and tried to contain Sarah's orgasm, but only ended up making things worse with the splashing of ejaculate. Ellie turned her head to see if Bill noticed, but he was still facing the other way. Sarah's ejaculation subsided and no more of her cum came out into Ellie's hand.

Ellie cautiously brought her hand up to her nose, and surmised the scent was probably not urine. She took an experimental slurp of the liquid and found that she couldn't taste the salty tang of urine. Going for broke, Ellie slurped up Sarah's juices on her hand and rubbed the woman's crotch again to make sure she got the rest out of her body.

To clean up the scene before Bill woke up, Ellie also went down on Sarah and licked all over from the inner thighs to vulva to under the navel to get everything out of Sarah's lower lips into Ellie's mouth. Ellie finished the returned favor and slurped and sucked out the remainder of Sarah's lower body fluids and sealed the deal with a long, wide-tongued lick from bottom to top.

She pushed off of Sarah's spread thighs and sat back to appreciate the sight of a post coital, sexually satisfied woman. Sarah smiled coyly and pulled her arms up to expose her generous mounds and armpits, and pulled her feet under her rump to spread her knees as far open as they could flare out. She hoped that Ellie would recognize and appreciate the imitation act, and it seemed that Ellie did since she plowed right into Sarah's bared body for an intimate kiss. 

Ellie kissed Sarah feverishly and played with her large breasts semi-roughly, weighing her hips down into Sarah's groin as hard as she could. She felt Sarah's hips push back to really grind their clitorises together, and felt an unaccounted for spurt escape her orifice onto Ellie's pubic region. Using her dexterous legs, Sarah used her heels to push Ellie's hip bone even more deeply into her own. "So much for waking up Bill," Ellie mused.

"OH WHAT THE FUCKING HELL, SARAH!"


	10. Chapter 10

Ellie's eyes widened to their full extent. Stuck between Sarah's legs, Ellie had nowhere to run and so she elected to keep her eyes downcast and only caught glimpses of Sarah's reactions.

For her part, Sarah was keeping calm and staying cool, despite being caught in another person's bed with an underage girl between her legs. Sarah propped her head on a hand and nonchalantly draped her other arm over Ellie's backside. "Good morning, Billy bear. Hope you slept well, 'cause we didn't so we decided to relax in our own way."

Bill by this point was already on his feet and debating whether to slap Sarah or go for his knife, or a gun. "You can't just fuck a child in a church! Are you fucking insane? Do you have any sense of decency?"

Ellie felt a genuine yawn arise from Sarah's upper chest, after which Sarah covered her mouth and muttered, "Yeah, yeah, I'm a horrible person, Bill. But hey I may be scarring this child for life, but it's not like the police will throw me in jail or anything. We got any breakfast?"

Bill himself muttered something under his breath, and went to the other mattress to pick up their clothes. He deliberately dropped them on the face of the adult of the two lesbians, and told her, "Sarah, we need to talk. Get dressed and come out without the kid."

With that, Bill left them to get dressed and went to heat up some breakfast for himself. Ellie made sure he was out of the room until she even raised her head, and found Sarah had yet to remove the covering on her face. "I think we're in trouble, Sarah."

Wordlessly, Sarah reached out for Ellie's head, and after a wave and a half found her mark and pet the young teenager up and down the crown of her head. Ellie gingerly removed the articles of clothing to reveal a smiling Sarah, who slightly sat up to capture Ellie's lips in hers. "I'll get dressed. You take your time, sweetie."

Doing so, Sarah left Ellie in the room and followed Bill's instructions. The man was seething in indignation, and got in Sarah's face as she sauntered over to him. "You cannot keep doing this, law be damned. You're going to hurt her like an adult if you mess up, and no kid should have to suffer that kind of heartbreak."

"Bill, give me a br-" Sarah started.

"No you listen to me. I had someone I cared for once. A partner. You knew him and the crap we put up with around each other. How can you expect her to handle the baggage you've got in that pretty little head of yours? It's not right, and what's more is that you know it," Bill stated, "Guhh, you were like family to me for that year we spent fighting off those tourists from taking this place over. You know I'd do anything for you to return the favor, but this is a little too much for me to handle.

"You drive west with the kid and you drop her off wherever that job takes you, and you let her down easy. The only way to do that is to stop fucking around with a growing kid like her when her hormones are all confused." Bill walked up within a breath of Sarah, "You got that? Don't mess her up more than you have already."

Sarah contemplated getting a snarky word in but instead staid her tongue, while reassuring herself that she would never be as monstrous as Bill makes her out to be. She knew she cared deeply for the girl, and would never intend to actually hurt her in any way.

Reading her face for a response, Bill gave up and sidled up to the antechamber door frame and asked, "Kid, you dressed? I'm gonna come talk to you if that's alright by you."

"Uhh, no wait I'm still naked! And, and, I need help putting on this...female thing...uh with Sarah's help," Ellie responded. Sarah slithered past Bill making eye contact with him and came to Ellie. "What's wrong, baby girl?"

"I, uh, don't want to talk to him. He seems mad at us for what we did," Ellie sullenly confided to her girlfriend.

Sarah corked a grin and reassured her, "He's way madder at me than at you, sweet thing. Come on, I won't leave your side as he says his piece, and after we cash in on the favor he owes me, we'll be out of his hair."

The girls hugged themselves to their feet and pulled on their loadouts as they exited the room. Bill had already opened the church window and finished gearing up for the assault on the high school, and saw the girl and her guardian right behind her.

Bill eyed the both of them and the body language they both showed. Sarah seemed firm but poised and Ellie seemed guarded but otherwise self-assured with the person she has covering her back. After a moment, Bill came up to the two within arms reach and dropped to a knee, and asked the minor a question or four.

"Ellie, are you going along with all this of your own free will? There's not anything Sarah has on you to force you to do things you don't like? You're actually having sexual relations with her by your own choice? Is there anything you'd like to tell me while I have the power to stop anything she's doing wrong?"

Ellie looked Bill in the eyes and didn't waver for a moment. She told him with a slight smile, "Thank you for worrying about me, but I'm the one who pursued this relationship. I'll deal with the consequences, and Sarah is not blackmailing me or anything. I'm putting my life in her hands on purpose, because I can trust her the most."

Bill looked her dead in the eyes for a spell and nodded his head numerous times to let the situation sink in. The young woman he lived with for the better part of a year turned out to be an ephebophile, and has no compunction having sex with a minor no matter what anybody else may think. He nodded one final time and rose to his feet.

"One last thing about this relationship and I'll let it go. I may not approve of this kind of thing, but if you're both going to carry on like this you two should definitely exercise discretion. You can't show just anyone the full extent of your relationship, because like it or not there are still people out there that will live, die, and kill for their ideals. If they see an adult touching kids, regardless of if you're a woman or not, they will kill you. So just don't advertise it out in the open, okay?"

Taking that as acceptance of their relationship - albeit begrudgingly - Sarah and Ellie felt a wave of relief, "Thanks Bill. Now let's get going to that high school."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Passing through suburban houses, their yards, and the alleys that binded them, they came out the front door of one home where Lincoln High School stood. 

The buses were set up as barricades and the armored vehicle had indeed poked into the side of the complex. Ellie followed closely behind Sarah, who had her bow drawn halfway in case any foe, human or not, got in their way. By the time they reached a window that opened, there were no signs of ambushes or traps and the trio began to thank their fortunes.

That ended as soon as they got to the APC's hood, "It's empty, it's fucking empty!" Sarah sternly called Bill, asking what to do in just that one name. "Someone else must have had the same idea," Bill explained.

Just then a storm of loud footsteps and distant yells rang from beyond the gaps of the vehicle and the crumbling wall. "Guys, we got company," Ellie nervously noted. 

Agreeing unanimously to take a detour out, the three snuck into the school as swiftly as they could. Sarah readied her revolver as they stole into the halls and chem labs, until they reached a gym door that was stuck. The three rammed their feet into the door until it pushed the bleachers enough for them to squeeze through, thereafter pushing it back into place as a barricade.

On the other end of the gym, however, the equipment closet door began rumbling and sounded ready to burst open. "Don't wait to see what that is - move!" yelled Sarah, leading to way to the folded up bleachers on their left. Sarah climbed up to pull Ellie up as quickly as humanly possible, and both helped Bill up soon after.

They began opening the windows when the door burst open and horrible noises emanated from the freshly opened room. "Go, go, GO!" Bill yelled. No one dared to look back and so they fled as quickly as their legs could carry them. They cleared some fences to lose their pursuers and ducked into the house with the algae-containing swimming pool. 

"Bill? What can we do now?" Sarah got right to the point. Bill quietly answered, "I don't know Sarah just give me a minute to think about what we can do...."

Sarah uttered, "Oh no...Frank." She cautiously approached the body of Bill's partner and lover, the man's head with a giant exit wound out of the side of the head and blood dripped down to his Hawaiian shirt. The body had dried and shriveled on the single sofa considerably, implicating that he had taken his own life quite some time ago. The suicide method lay within Frank's lap, a .22 inch calibre Ruger 22/45; the television had a bullet hole through the flat screen.

"He's got bite marks here...and here. Damn that Frank; why'd he have to leave me like that?" Bill said with a stunted voice. The threat of sobbing had to be actively suppressed to stay strong for the girls. "He probably didn't want to turn, so...."

"I'm sorry, Bill." Sarah wrapped her arm around Bill's shoulders, and the distraught man returned the gesture with a heartfelt embrace. No matter what may come between the two, Sarah and Bill would be lifelong friends, deeper than even a blood relation.

whirr-wh-whrr

"What the hell," Bill said as he broke contact. Sarah shared his confusion and followed the source of the noise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://thefiringline.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-93690.html for the Elvis reference


	11. Chapter 11

In the garage, Ellie turned both the key in the car ignition and her head to the two arriving adults. "Hey, what do you know. This thing may come in handy after all."

"That's my engine!" Bill exclaimed. "That sneaky son of a bitch. He was going to run out on me!"

Ellie turned to Sarah, "What's that all about?" Sarah meekly hushed her younger companion, "Shh, sh, ssh. I'll tell you about it later, sweetie - Bill! How's that engine looking?"

Slamming the hood, Bill politely scooched Ellie out of the driver's seat to turn the ignition himself, and replied, "Well, the engine can turn which means it ain't dead. Which means we can mush it downhill and pop the clutch, even if the damn thing is an automatic. Did you check if there was gas in there, Ellie?"

"Already did, and it doesn't smell sweet. It's probably still good to go," Ellie remarked. She tried her best to play it cool like it was no big thing, and casually leaned onto Sarah's side. From the periphery of her eyes, she could see Sarah was indeed impressed.

"Ha ha, good. Alright hotshot, you're the lightest one here so you'll need to be driver at least until the engine turns over. Sarah, you and I have push duty." Bill readied his shotgun and went up front to the door. "Oh, and Ellie you got any idea how to push start a car?"

Ellie stepped into the car and comfortably stretched out her limbs and torso in the roomy driver's seat. "I'll be fine. I know how to pop a clutch, Bill."

"How th...nevermind. Sarah, start shoving from the boot there." He opened the garage door manually upwards and immediately swept his muzzle across the street. Seeing and hearing nothing, he joined Sarah at the back of the car.

The two adults shoved the vehicle out onto the street. Ellie began turning the car out right parallel onto the roadway, so Sarah and Bill kept pushing until the vehicle began accelerating on its own weight. Ellie lightly charged the accelerator in neutral and turned the ignition as soon she shifted to the lowest gear possible (L). 

The vehicle came to an abrupt stop. The house they just exited from was emitting noises which sounded man-made. "Ellie! Babe, we gotta move!" yelled Sarah. They pushed again until they hit the next ridge, whereupon Ellie waited until the speedometer reached a solid 30mph until starting again this time on 2nd gear. 

WHIR-R-R-FWOOM

The engine came to life, the air in its cylinders finally compressing to ignition, and the gas-powered motor began turning over all the mechanical and electrical components of the vehicle. "Get us out of here, kid!" Bill yelled as the two pushers jumped in the bed of the truck. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Bill."

"Yeah?"

Sarah and Bill stared back to the distance from the bed of the truck, back from where they escaped with their lives intact. The sky was pink and orange with well-worn clouds, signaling the end of the daylight the three took great advantage of to complete a job well done. In the end, the three came away unscathed, and the heroine of the day was none other than the youngest of them. 

"I think I'm actually in love with the kid. Not just as some mother or sister kind of situation, but as another woman. In this...god-forsaken mess of a world we live in, I found something...no, someone to believe in. To have faith that she'll make me better than I could be on my own.

"And the best part about it, Billy bear," she said turning her head to him, "Is that even when I die from any number of reasons, she'll survive. I'll make sure of it."

Unbeknownst to the grown ups, Ellie had her window down the whole time, cruising at such a pace where she could listen to every word. Sarah continued, "And you know what? I can rest easy knowing that no matter what happens, she'll succeed me. She's the best of us all, Bill. She's the best humanity has to offer and I feel so lucky I'm a part of that.

"That's what I want you to understand, Bill. I have a really good feeling about this girl, and when have we ever had a good feeling about anything?" Sarah looked at Bill's countenance to see consternation. The man mulled over the woman's words, but kept a response to himself. 

At some point, Bill noticed a landmark, "Alright Ellie, that's enough." A couple solid bumps into the rear windshield and Ellie reacted with a controlled stop. The two adults jumped off the truck bed and came up on the side. "Here," Bill gave Sarah a siphon, "You'll be surprised at how many vehicles still have gas in them."

"Thanks, Billy." Sarah reached for a hug, and Bill returned with a bear hug of his own. The two stayed like that for a moment, until they pulled away slowly.

"We're square?" Bill asked. 

"We're square," Sarah answered.

Bill regarded the woman he spent the last year or two with, defending his town from all sides at one point, with a relaxed, proud mien. He had nothing to worry about with her, and he felt lucky to know such a wonderful human being. "Then get the fuck out of my town," he said with a knowing smile. 

Sarah returned it wordlessly and watched him turn back into town. Walking back to the driver's seat, and upon seeing Ellie's beaming smile and glistening eyes, Sarah instead took a quick kiss through the left window and walked around front to sit in the passenger's side. Ellie gave a confused look but turned her head straight ahead in fluster when the larger woman snuggled into Ellie's right side. The elder female hugged as much of Ellie as the center console would allow, and snuck in some kisses into Ellie's neck and the back of her ear. 

To Ellie's short life up to this point, this was the proudest moment in her life, and until dawn of the next day her excitement would not fail her in staying awake.

For Sarah's sake, and for the bright future that awaited the couple together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still on I-90 West, daybreak finally pulled Ellie back to the realm of drowsiness. Sarah was still wrapped around Ellie's right arm. 

They passed by the transfer that would take them south into New York city to continue west. A safe enough distance from the hotspot intersections, the two parked on the side of the road. 

Of course, they had turned off all the exterior and interior lights with all the doors and windows locked, but kept the engine running so the alternator could do its work with the car's dormant components. 

Sarah's eyes awoke from the dullness that beset them to conserve energy, and was about to take the mantle until Ellie pulled her chin up with a finger. The younger girl was clearly ready to retire, but she still challenged the woman with a come hither gesture with her fingers, as she clambered over sluggishly to the back seat. 

Knowing where this was going, Sarah obliged and followed back. Ellie's bum still stood in the way, so Sarah nudged it along like an animal would push with its head. The smell of the day gone by emanated faintly from Ellie's pants crotch and Sarah felt herself arouse suspicions of the sensual nature. 

Head never really leaving its position, Sarah felt Ellie turn onto her back and side and spread her legs for the dirty blonde to breathe her in deep. Ellie bit her lower lip and began touching herself by pinching her nipples and kneading her own breasts as Sarah stared dead-focused in between Ellie's thighs. 

Sarah hungrily breathed heavily onto the young girl's clothed vulva, and summarily began unbuckling Ellie's pants. Her pants and panties down just below her knees, Ellie opened her thighs as much as she could to allow Sarah denuded access to her delicate lips. 

The older woman's damp breaths upon Ellie's private parts were almost too much to bear. She felt like she would spring a leak at any moment, which at this point in their relationship would only be endearing rather than embarrassing. 

With bated breath, the women patiently waited. Wordlessly, they knew there was a perfect time for this to begin, and so they held off for agonizing moments measured in exhales and heartbeats. 

And then Sarah dug in. Ellie moaned feverishly, "Ohhhhhh, Sarah.... Ahhhh...." 

With Ellie's squirming hips in front, smooth juvenile thighs on both sides, and tightening pants from the rear, Sarah's head swam in a mosh pit of sensations to the touch. She lapped up and drank in every single drop of love juice that the 14-year-old girl ahead of her exuded, hedonistically losing herself in every blissful moment she was making a reality. 

Tittering between blacking out from two wholly different reasons, Ellie moved her hands from the crown of Sarah's head to her pants to take them off completely. Her legs now freer than they ever physically could be, the auburnette split her legs wide apart as naturally as she could. When Sarah came up for air, Ellie was reminded of a picture she saw in military school once. 

The maned lion was an iconic symbol of male majesty, but Ellie had always been drawn to powerful images of femininity. When she happened upon a head cropped picture of a lioness, bottom half of her face drenched in blood from a fresh meal, Ellie was forever entranced and any thought of interest in the opposite sex had evaporated from then on. 

That's what Sarah's face reminded her of now. In the dawn of the rising sun peaking in from behind, the faint but solid sunlight shone on Sarah's glistening face. Brown hair which was golden under light, a slew of unflattering wrinkles that betrayed her age, and steel blue-gray eyes sat atop a nose, lips, and chin drenched in the juices of a fresh meal.

The thrill of the real life image in front of her was exhilarating, and she found herself not afraid but rather wanting to take the situation by the reins and to experience it to the fullest. Ellie gently guided Sarah's hands to her own knees and did her best to shove her crotch into the wild beast's mouth again without using her hands.

"Sarah, suck on my pussy."

Maintaining eye contact, Sarah's face half-disappeared back down into Ellie's tender, pulsating vulva. The frighteningly beautiful woman noisily enjoyed herself, consuming not flesh but jus, sucking and licking, lapping and slurping up Ellie's essence like an animal.

Ellie's hands didn't dare ruin this burgeoning moment between two women who more than loved each other. Her hands stayed on top of Sarah's which were pushing down on Ellie's knees, splitting open the biggest barrier to Ellie's most precious part. Using only her tongue and lips, Sarah alternated between gentle tugs and violent jerks on Ellie's sensitive petals.

Finally the walls stated to cave in. Ellie started to cum, gently at first, violently second, and in sporadic bursts thereafter. Exhaustion and heady arousal were taking its toll on the younger lover, and her head stated to loll with her mouth agape. The older lover kept her eyes steady, taking care to see how the recipient of her loving ministrations was handling the wild ride. 

Green eyes were obscured by half-lidded eyelids, but the irises still stared back at Sarah. The twitching stopped and was replaced by a consistent, weak rhythm of hip thrusts into Sarah's mouth, still unwilling to give it up and wanting to prove she still had something in her left inside. 

Once the rhythm petered off, Sarah stopped moving her head. A few breaths from the girl above later, the same auburnette spoke up, "Don't...stop.... Even...if I pass out, don't stop eating me. Keep...eating...me...out."

Almost to the point of painfully slow, Sarah obliged. Long, broad licks upward from vaginal orifice to clitoris, and gentle, measured sucking kisses downward from clitoral hood to vaginal opening, Sarah gave it all, just as Ellie took it all. 

From some warped, ad hoc sense of duty and loyalty compounded by love, Sarah ate Ellie's pussy until the girl was finally sound asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to end the chapter on Ellie's high note, but thought I could sneak in a little tradition here, with the chapter number and all.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leavin' Lincoln, Passin' Pittsburgh.

Waking up slowly to the thrum of a moving vehicle, Ellie found herself fully clothed and safely laid out in the back seat of the sports utility vehicle. She could see the side of Sarah's head and body at an angle, manning the wheel and heading west toward the sunset.

"How are you able to drive with the sun in your eyes?" the pubescent girl asked. Sarah spared a glance her way and grinned, but returned her gaze to the road and proffered a hand to the backseat for Ellie to hold onto. Once contact was made, Sarah answered, "I guess you're more used to armored military vehicles. These civilian cars have these tab things above our heads to shield our eyes from the sun's glare. Pretty useful if you ask me."

Ellie did in fact notice that the sunlight just barely stayed below Sarah's eyeline, and even that extent was probably intentional to keep as much visibility of the road as possible. As she sat up, the shorter passenger immediately realized why her girlfriend mentioned the glare shield.

Squinting, Ellie sat up and rested her right knee on the center console to wrap her same-side arm under Sarah's breasts. Taking refuge in Sarah's shady hair, Ellie kissed her cheek languidly, "Morning."

"Afternoon," the driver corrected, "Did you sleep okay?" Sarah reached back up with her right arm to pet the back of Ellie's head.

The younger girl leaned forward and more into the older driver, pushing her body entirely off the backseat. Giggling, Ellie recounted the last thing that happened before she succumbed to the unconscious. Sarah grinned and wrapped an arm around Ellie's shoulders. 

"What state are we in now?" Ellie asked, looking for landmarks she didn't recognize.

"We passed Connecticut, upstate New York, and are somewhere deep into Pennsylvania." Sarah conveniently left out the fact that she was not really the most experienced driver in the world and was just following signs for big cities she casually recognized, all except New York City. She would not fall for that trap so easily.

After an uneventful evening of finding stops for siphoning gas and potable water, the girls continued their westerly trip across the American continent, further and farther away from the Atlantic coastline. Eventually, they crossed over into Appalachia and it became evident that summer began to fall.

"Kinda wish I stole more interesting magazines back at Bill's," the bored teenager said from the passenger's side. She read the few comics she smuggled out in her shirt, front to back to front, left to right and right to left.

"Mm-hmm," Sarah responded. She was half listening to Ellie, half hearing the nondescript country music playing on the cassette car stereo, not needing to listen to government or Firefly propaganda on the radio waves.

As they passed through Pittsburgh, Ellie began to doze off to conserve food energy. However, they reached an impasse of car carcasses blockading their progress. Debating whether to take the conveniently located detour, or to reverse and find a parallel road, Sarah came to a decision. To consult someone else. 

"Ellie," Sarah said to wake up her companion. "Take a look at this."

Too early to even be cranky yet, the auburnette rubbed each eye to take in the scene before them. Immediately, her eyes flew open, "That's a goddamn trap. Those graffiti marks on the cars are up to date. We should get the fuck out of here."

"I wholeheartedly ag*crack*

Small bullet holes emerged on the windshield. Sarah suspected suppressed .22s, but refused to stay docile in this situation. Shoving Ellie's head down without a word, the brunette T turned to about face in the opposite direction. Squealing rubber on pavement, the vehicle fled the scene.

"Oh shit! Are these guys serious?" Ellie exclaimed.

Down below on the frontage road, a fully covered HMMWV with mounted M2 Browning was following up on the ambush. The barrel swiveled toward their direction, and all four eyes in the SUV peeled wide open.

"I'm making an executive decision, hold on!" Sarah shouted. She pulled right toward the center median, having been driving backwards on the left side of the road, and approached the apex of the previous exit. She banked a hard left, hairpin turn into the exit, and released the brake just before the crux of the curve, ready to ease into the gas pedal once the apex was cleared. 

The covered vehicle had a dilemma on its hands: either hit the throttle and ram the tourists, or ease off and attempt to swing the machine gun in an arc to cut off the victims' lateral movement.

It didn't matter, however, as the angular speed of the turning car was faster than the decision making process of the hummer team, and the lesbians escaped the vehicular and firing killzones.

"Ho-holy shit, Sarah! You're fucking amazing! How did you know to pull that off?" Ellie watched Sarah's countenance for a response, but there was none to be found other than the conflicted combination of anxiety and relief. "Oh."

Perhaps it was because Sarah never had many chances to drive a vehicle, but any bravado or confidence was shaken off its branches for the next hour. They followed the frontage road cautiously, ready to take a cross street at any sign of something wrong.

Eventually they took to the freeway again once the river bridge was in view. This time, rather than one wall to block their progress it was a mass of strewn about cars that forced them to swerve in and out of them carefully.

At the middle of the bridge, however, they found out why all the cars congregated here: a giant gaping hole. "Damn," they both muttered, and made to reverse back out quickly. 

PUTPUTPUTPUTPUT

The gunfire rang through the thin sheet metal of the wrecked cars like they were soda cans, and the gas guzzling engine roar could be heard closing in on them. Sarah drove out the SUV as close to the edge as possible, just to get further away from the inhuman assailants behind them. Parking the car, she leapt out of the vehicle onto the pavement and checked the river below on foot. 

"What are we going to do?" Ellie yelled out the window. She was ready to follow Sarah into the water if need be, even if she could never swim. She was just about to egress from the vehicle until Sarah ran back and returned to the driver's seat. She reached over to buckle Ellie's seatbelt and likewise did for her own the same.

Sarah turned back to her, "Tell me if you're ready for this Ellie. I'll do whatever you want, but this seems like the best choice we got."

Ellie immediately grabbed the back of Sarah's head and kissed her deeply. "I love you. Now let's go!"

The two turned back to the river, grasping each other's hand, and drove straight for the metal cliff and into the water below.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/Ish#References for the notes verbatim.

With the sun shining high above them, the two girlfriends came to on the sandy shore of the Ohio river. Sarah lay supinated; Ellie lay prostrate. 

All of this was the dirty blonde's doing, though, Sarah chided herself. She fortunately kept the windows open so that upon breaking the water's surface, it would be possible to exit the submerging vehicle regardless of the water pressure. She would find out quickly that Ellie was not a swimmer, and so she carried her up to the air-water interface.

The water was colder and swifter than expected, and it took all they had to stay afloat and clear of rocks and debris. The strength sapped out of them down to the bone, but they made it to the river's edge and crawled up above the tide line. Sarah was unsure how much water Ellie swallowed and so pulled her onto her stomach in case she vomited, too exhausted to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. What mattered now was that they were alive and safe.

Ellie pushed herself up on all fours and crawled onto her adult partner's body for comforting warmth. "Hey you, we're alive," the juvenile said. Having lost all their possessions not on their immediate persons, they remained collapsed on top of one another on the sand earned by the afternoon sun.

The older woman, however, had to push off her younger girlfriend to save them both from hypothermia. Ellie flashed a momentary look of betrayal in her eyes, but she felt Sarah stripping the girl's clothes off and saw her checking their surroundings. Ellie offered to do the same for Sarah, and they took each other's clothes off, checking every inch of skin for cuts and bruises.

Devoid of clothes, and realizing they were devoid of guns, the two females felt truly naked and vulnerable. They grabbed their soaking clothes and followed the shoreline, coming across a boat. Sarah held a hand to Ellie's bare chest to wordlessly command her to stay back, fearing tetanus or other possible infections if her young girlfriend were to explore the wreckage in her denuded state.

Putting her wet clothes to good use, the dirty blonde made a safe path for her hands and legs to climb aboard the crashed vessel. The clothes prevented her bare skin from contact with splinters along ledges. She avoided or covered the other exposed wooden or metallic parts of the ship that were not already smoothed by the winds of time.

Exploring the vessel, inside the small cabin she came across a note, presumably written by the ship's owner: 

_Well... It's looking like I've dodged the chaos and the mayhem long enough. My time out at sea is coming to an end. I'm short on supplies and this boat has seen better days. And you know what... This was bound to happen sooner or later. I guess it's time to go see what's left of mankind._

_What could possibly go wrong, right?_

_If you happen to find my skeleton, please don't step on my skull. Thanks._

_-Ish_

"There were dozens of you. And you were all selfish pieces of shit. You're not special," Sarah muttered to no one in particular. Not finding any supplies, Sarah returned whence she came to her awaiting companion.

Ellie was sunbathing and sitting on the damp sand, leaning back on her hands without a care in the world. Her spread legs lay open to the invigorating wind, as no one but her girlfriend and guardian was on the river's shore. She saw Sarah come back with a dour expression on her face, and assumed melancholy for what she may have seen on the boat.

Before she could do something about it, the two women heard the dull puttputts of gunfire again, and though no projectiles whizzed by their position, the duo scrambled to get to cover. Ellie followed Sarah, who followed the stream up to a sewer grate. Disregarding the instinctual disgust of having to duck into a sewer naked, the ladies pulled on the rusted metal trap together to help each other in.


	14. Chapter 14

The sewers had the musty smell of old rain and concrete. Whether the blue green on the walls were mold or algae, the girls did not know. The water was much cooler down in here, which did a number on their feet and ankles as they trudged forth into the derelict sewage system.

Before continuing, Sarah made sure to at least put some pants on her juvenile lover. The water at some points was beginning to reach thigh level for the young girl, and at least some form of protection seemed warranted. "Don't want something crawling up there, am I right?" the dirty blonde jested.

"Yeah, yeah, like that'll ever happen," the auburnette grumbled, and yet she craned her head up for a kiss as thanks for the cautionary care. She smiled the whole way through the small tunnel, warmed just by the fact that she even had a guardian who loved her so much.

Sarah also put on some pants, and the topless couple continued into the subterranean system until they began to hit drier patches of pavement, and eventually they hit a fork. Treading the right, they came across a fenced area. 

To the side, Ellie pulled a vent cover on her own and began crawling inside to unblock the fenced area for her partner. Once both were inside, Sarah casually hugged her Ellie as thanks, briefly relishing in the warm, skin-to-skin contact above the waist. Inside there was a bulletin board with numerous clippings from 2013, the year of the initial outbreak. Somewhere along the clutter, a new note stuck out:

_I'm gone for a few months and the world doesn't waste any time going to shit. Everywhere you turn there're infected — and non-infected — trying to kill you. Mankind is back to the food chain, baby! I'm kind of shocked I've survived this long._

_These sewers seem pretty safe. Unlimited exits/entrances make it easier to defend, and if anyone gets in here, I can lose them in the maze. I might not be tough, but I am quick. Maybe I just need to bide my time down here until it all gets sorted up there. I think I'll become a sewer mole-man for a while. Wish me luck. — Ish_

"Good luck," Ellie said to the wind. Sarah continued investigating the area for weapons and supplies as if the note never existed. Ellie found her behavior odd. "Poor bastard, right? I mean I know he said it was over a season, but there still would've been some residual...shit down here, right?" 

The elder female casually handed her minor a wooden stick to use as a weapon, and then picked up a steel pipe for herself. She let out an imperceptible sigh and told her young lover, "Honestly, I was extremely surprised how quickly the cities returned to the wild. Less than two weeks and all the pollution and smells were gone. Maybe we were all just so focused on our own survival, but you'd be surprised just how fast our human footprint can be erased. I think that guy's nose would have been fine down here by that point."

She draped a warm arm around Ellie to end the conversion, and both continued on to the left side of the fork connected by a dark, dank corridor. They came upon an open area flooded by runoff, with a metal gate to their right. Sarah jumped into the water feet first, splashing a bit onto Ellie, who giggled. "Knock it off, Sarah!" 

The topless woman floated peaceably in the fairly clear sullage. She reached out an arm to her ward and girlfriend, silently bidding her to come join. The topless girl looked at her unbelieving, thinking it was a badly timed joke. When the wet brunette unrelented, however, the auburnette expressed hesitant trepidation.

"Baby, you need to learn how to swim, not for my sake but for yours. You can't just say, 'I can't swim,' and leave it at that. You have to grow as a girl into a woman, and - in this world, if you want to survive - a woman to just another person. You can't let anything stop you from staying at the top of the food chain, not even a little water." 

Upon listening intently to her mentor's words, Ellie nodded and inched toward the edge to grab it and lower herself slowly into the water. The cold water surrounded her bare torso burning her lungs with the suffocating, pressing cold. She struck blindly at the water to reach her nearby girlfriend, but Sarah refused to embrace her for warmth. Instead, she gently lifted her by the hands. 

"Swimming means getting used to how the water feels as quickly as possible. Sure you don't want to stay in freezing water if you can help it, but this is nothing compared to, like, mountain rivers. Get comfortable, and always remember to breathe. That's how you float; that's how you swim. It's all just a strug-balance between inhale and exhale." 

Ellie put Sarah's words into practice, and did her best to control her rapid, shallow breaths. The first deep breath was almost painful with her heartbeat beating against her lungs. But with the second, the third, the fourth, and every successive beat, Ellie felt her lungs gain strength and, most importantly, control of the situation. 

Every inhale she held, she could feel her tight, skinny body rise up from the water. She felt her breasts widen and expand, and looked to Sarah's bosom expecting the same. The woman indeed puffed her generous chest, but the girl was disappointed to see her nipples were not visible underneath that delicious cleavage. 

The water rippled too vigorously around Sarah to get a good look, meaning she was kicking the water to stay afloat. Emulating her heroine, Ellie did the same and began kicking as if she were throwing a tantrum. "Easy, kid. It's more like a bounce than a kick. Imagine gently stomping heads under your feet, and you'll float effortlessly."

The analogy was unusual, yet apt for the times they lived in. The child did as told, green eyes transfixed on the steel blue eyed adult's chest. She imagined stomping on faceless bad guys, yet bouncing off their heads and floating through the air above. She was doing it, she was floating for real.

And Sarah's hands were absent the whole time. In her concentration, Ellie did not realize her guardian had let go. Sarah instead waded closer to her, and planted a kiss on the lips, "Well done." Only then did Sarah hug Ellie, and the cold water started to feel a bit warmer.

The sensation of chest to chest, nipples rubbing over another, and tummies touching had to come to an end, however. The brunette let the auburnette go gently, and explored the surrounding area. Seeing a large gate, she dove down to inspect the chains. In seconds, she dislodged a branch from the mechanism, and resurfaced to grab Ellie by the waist and pull her to safety.

Ellie stood shivering but warmly satisfied by the turn of events. She was surprisingly chipper at the situation they found themselves in, stranded in a sewer for protection against a murderous technical. It was probably because of the intimacy it afforded her and Sarah to get closer to one another. The two worked together to rotate the valve, which slowly opened the rusted gate.

The two young women broke the surface of the water again to swim through the gate. Rising up to a concrete embankment, they saw rays of light shining down upon an alcove created by a caved in roof. Inside was a flat sitting space wherein lying down on it the girls realized it was warmed by sunlight for the day.

The adult woman got up and took off Ellie's pants again, and began hanging up their sopping wet clothes on corners of the rock wherever she could manage to do so. Sarah joined her young lover back down on the warm floor and rubbed their fronts together. Ellie was originally on her back, supine, and Ellie crawled on all fours to lightly hover over her. 

Letting her weight down, Sarah made slight shifts and adjustments so they could both be comfortable. Her breasts rested on Ellie's clavicles, and when Ellie hugged her lover more tightly, she could feel her bosom spill out even more. The weight was not heavy, but it was noticeable and the responsible guardian eased off to a side to lift some burden off her nubile partner.

Now on their sides, the women rested on their bottom arms as pillows and used their top arm and leg to drape over one another for sustained body heat exchange. They shimmied and slithered over each other to work out any kinks or gaps, and became content with just how much their bodies touched and aligned.

They began kissing, "I love you Ellie." "I love you Sarah," they exchanged. They repeated the whispers into each other's lips, punctuated with kisses in between. "I love you * I love you * i love you...," until they both fell to sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

The Appalachians were generally not always this cold. The thin air, however, meant even summer could provide a cool breeze every so often. When it reached our nude heroines, Ellie shivered the most. Whether it was lack of age in her muscles, or lack of fat from her childhood, the auburnette was more susceptible to cold than her older, more buxom girlfriend.

In the foggy haze of sleep to waking, Ellie pulled on Sarah like a blanket, wanting more areas of their skin to touch and their bodies to share warmth. The 14-year-old's body reacted to the pleasurable, physical sensation before her mind could. Her arm draped over the 29-year-old's ribcage and pulled Sarah's adult features tight to Ellie's frontal half.

Ellie tightened her thighs and glutes together and thrust her hips forward to get a good stretch. "Mmmmmmmmm...." she hummed into the brunette's pale neck. The auburnette stretched her body backwards - her legs, buttocks, and small back formed a crescent. Her face lowered from Sarah's neck to nestle between her breasts, and Ellie felt her face flush. She was now somewhat awake.

She was about to insert her fingers for pleasure, either into herself or inside of Sarah, but Ellie had doubts on the cleanliness of the water they had come out of earlier. They were in a sewer, and no matter how many years it's been since its last use, it was still a sewage system.

Ellie gave Sarah's chest a sniff, and was glad to inhale nothing but a faint odor of human skin. Wanting to explore further, the girl gently rolled her lover onto her back and let the adult's voluptuous breasts droop on each side. 

Letting her primal instincts take over, Ellie began kneading the doughy mounds and suckled on them, pulling them up with her mouth and dropping them with a wet pop. She had also begun unconsciously mashing her hips into Sarah's crotch, clitoris flicking clitoris with every slick thrust.

It felt like an eternity until she felt herself come close, not even bothering to check if Sarah was awake to feel the same. Groping and fondling, suckling and nibbling, Ellie gave Sarah's upper body vigorous attention from on top. Lower down, Ellie exploited her higher position to rain down as hard a pounding as her juvenile hips could give.

She felt herself coming close and pushed her hands off the unconscious adult's generous chest, and planted her hands on the woman's abdomen to focus entirely on thrusting her hips into Sarah's. Ellie's tough flower, lightly outlined by ruddish hairs, smashed mercilessly into Sarah's pubic bone, covered in short, blonde hair. Pushing deeply into her lover's crotch with her own, Ellie felt her rhythm finally build up to something, and she gave away her closeness with a raspy whisper, "Sarah...I...l...." 

Sarah's cold, blue eyes flew open. She scrunched her shoulders up to bring her hands around Ellie's buttocks to mash their pelves together. From the side, it seemed the taller woman was curved inward and the shorter girl was arched back, both connected at the very bottom of their torsos with arms crisscrossed, and Ellie's legs trailing straight back, contrasting with Sarah's bent, spread legs and her feet planted firmly on the ground.

The orgasm was so intense that Ellie's eyes couldn't help but water. She collapsed her head on Sarah's breast, languidly lifting her chin for a kiss. Sarah did not oblige, and instead wedged a foot between Ellie's knees and lifted the girl effortlessly. Using all four hands and feet, they were now north to south, and Ellie understood why; she was face to face with the fruits of her labor - a wet, sopping, blonde vulva.

Ellie felt something wondrous happening to her own bottom half, and decided to get to work. She began a broad lick from the clitoral hood and dragged her cat like tongue up to the very bottom of Sarah's lips near the perineum. Immediately afterward, she could physically see Sarah's vagina twitch open. 

Sarah then tightened her abs, not just as a reaction to Ellie's action, but also to curve her hips upward, allowing a better view of her vaginal contents to her young lover. Red hot, fleshy petals looked much too juicy to leave alone, so Ellie sucked on each half, attempting to rob each flesh petal of its fluids. In them, she tasted the essence of Sarah with a hint of herself. 

With some pride, she noticed Sarah began mimicking Ellie's actions. Her strong, thick, adult tongue almost lifted Ellie's crotch and buttocks skyward with every lick. Firm sucks on Ellie's two labia were so forceful they felt like a massage, spreading and stretching her wide open without even using any hands. 

Then finally, Sarah enveloped the entirety of Ellie's small crotch with her mouth. Ellie could feel her lower body being sucked dry; Sarah's unbelievably strong mouth felt like they were trying to pull the girl's cervix out. Ellie moaned into Sarah's vagina, and prevented herself from voicing her pains by sucking on her vagina too. 

The never-ending cycle of vaginal-to-oral eventually petered off, as the women's orgasms were becoming farther and fewer with time. The two settled down to just light licks and wet, sucking kisses, their hands gently gripping onto the other female's butt cheeks.

After each lick, after each kiss, and after each slurp, each woman breathed heavily upon the source of her sensual feast, which in turn refreshed the flow of its heady juices. They continued languidly pleasuring each other until the day broke, and the light began to shine through cracks on the surface. The sunlight provided warmth for the patches of skin it touched, but by then the two women had already taken care of each other.


	16. Chapter 16

"Delicious," Ellie said first. "So were you," Sarah replied next.

The two women were laying there in the alcove, head to vulva and skin to skin. Day broke and the sun began warming up select portions of the sewer, including their impromptu bedroom for all of last night. Their thoughts recollected, Sarah and Ellie remembered the looming danger of the technical above, the possible dangers of infection down below, and the overarching challenge of finding the Fireflies' medical team across the continent.

Oh, and they were still butt naked. They had been bare for over half a day already. The dim, yet cozy ruins they took shelter in was mostly bare and smooth on the ground, not unlike its new guests. Perhaps the frequent sunlight dried most of the concrete of any algal growth. The naked female visitors also would have noticed by now if even a small patch of dust or debris were present on the floor; most likely the summer showers took care of any loose particles. Ellie, the woman on top, showed etiquette by getting up off Sarah's body first. Though the girl stepped off to the side a bit, her bum was still facing the woman's head.

And Sarah could not resist. She reached out for Ellie's nearer thigh and clung to it, providing grip for the heavier woman to stand up.

Or, rather, to sit up. Just enough for Sarah to bring her head level to her girl's hips and to poke her own nose up the middle of Ellie's crack. The whole time, Ellie simply froze, not knowing what to do. She could somewhat infer right away that Sarah was grabbing her thigh to get up, but was only half surprised her crass lover decided to literally kiss her ass. It was actually both flattering and endearing all at once.

But then Sarah took a giant whiff. Exasperated, Ellie yelled. "Sarah!" But stop her, she did not.

Sarah turned her face to her left. _Kiss_. To the crook of Ellie's right thigh and hip. _Kiss._ She did not relent, smooching along the sides of Ellie's fissure until Sarah got up to her knees, where her lips were high enough to kiss Ellie's tailbone. Sarah stuck her tongue up to Ellie's dimples of Venus and down just where Ellie's tight crack began.

Ellie was still hunched over but could not help but arch her back. She felt burning in her thighs, but she would not have moved her body away for the world. Thankfully, Sarah was done playing with her butt and was pulling herself up using Ellie's body, like a...whatever those animals were called. Ellie had seen some of the mythological animals and their names, but aside from feral dogs, cats, and birds, she had never had a reason to recall an animal's name.

Ah, now Sarah was already kissing Ellie's shoulder blades. Sarah's womanly hips completely engulfed Ellie's narrow, waifish pelvis from behind. An arm pulled Ellie's bottom even closer to Sarah's lower privates. A squishy pair of fat mounds draped over Ellie's upper back. The remaining arm of Sarah's pulled back on Ellie's upper chest, above her nipple line.

"Great posture, Ellie," Sarah assured her. "See how with a straight back, you can lift anything? Take a look at my feet." Doing so, Ellie noticed Sarah's feet were not touching the ground. Sarah spelled out what it meant, "You're supporting all of my weight. You could even say you're now giving me a piggy back ride." 

"Piggy?" 

Sarah quickly went silent. Ellie could feel her lover's smirk drop like a rock; she suddenly felt a bit heavier. A full beat passed, and Sarah elected to omit the subject: "Let's see if you can carry me to the water. We need to rinse off our love scent from last night." 

Happy to make her happy, Ellie did as she was told - or ordered - and gave Sarah a ride to the clear water of the sewer pool. Deliberating momentarily on how to orient their bodies when they struck the surface of the water, the bottom girl decided the simplest answer was the best. So she simply made a beeline for the water with her girlfriend on her back, and broke the water's surface with both of their feet first. They hollered and yelped as the water rushed up to meet them.

"Ha ha! Ha...hmmm...." Sarah exclaimed into a wan smile. Ellie took a moment to come up for air, and when she did she had the wide eyed look of someone who made a huge mistake. The sheer panic written on Ellie's face was enough to evoke even more hearty laughter from her much older girlfriend Sarah. In return, the much younger girlfriend grabbed hold of two of Sarah's body parts.

"These flotation devices should come in handy," Ellie said. Sarah continued to smile, and closed the distance between the two. With one hand around the girl's small back, the woman kissed her girl. "I love you," said Sarah, opening her eyes after the kiss to look fondly into Ellie's chartreuse irises. 

Without waiting for a response, Sarah turned in place to allow Ellie on her back, which she happily obliged. Ellie decided on underhooks instead of grabbing over the shoulder. From under Sarah's armpits, and actually under each breast, Ellie snaked her arms up to Sarah's collarbones and lateral muscles. Satisfied that the two women washed off their sex stench, the dirty blonde waded through the water with her auburnette in tow.

The two came up the broken staircase back to their alcove where their by-now dry clothes lay, but Ellie stayed latched onto Sarah's back. Ellie switched over to hugging Sarah's neck to stay up on her back, and Sarah obliged by grabbing outside Ellie's knees to lift her as she walked.

Despite the teasing and somewhat brutish behavior of her older lover, Ellie was glad she could enjoy life with her like this: clinging to her naked, wet body whenever she wanted to, making love all through the night or having a quick fuck wherever they deemed it a good time and place for dirty sex, and making sure they had each other's backs, no matter how much of the world decides to hate them.

And of course how many things Sarah taught her or was thoughtful of. As they neared their clothes, Sarah crept her hands back to around the ruddy brunette's pale gluteal cheeks, which the wizened brunette wordlessly spread apart.

"Do you need to pee?"

Now Ellie was fully awake. Listless she was no longer. "What?" 

"Do you need to pee? Or do you need to poo?" 

"Uhhh...." Ellie could not decide the words to form an appropriate response to this situation.

"If you need to piss or shit, now is a good time before we get back on our road trip." 

Unbeknownst to the young girl, the older woman was making light of a reference to the good ole days when all one had to worry about when traveling was when to fill up gas, and relieve oneself, often at the same stop.

When Sarah remembered herself, she realized Ellie was in mild perturbed shock. Perhaps now was a good time to relax Ellie's buttcheeks, and let her down on her feet. As she did so, she turned and noticed Ellie's eyes were distant and preoccupied, giving away that the gears grinding in her head were slowed to a viscous traffic jam.

Sarah took advantage of the situation and grabbed their dry clothes, dressing the 14-year-old first. Panties around both legs, pulled up to cunny, and stretched the hems taut to prevent wedge issues. Pants mostly the same, and then buttoned and zipped. And lastly arms into shirt sleeves and pulled over her pretty little head.

"Let's go check upstairs!" Sarah said to Ellie. Perhaps they would find something there.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ This video](https://youtu.be/G1XVgn1EwRc) and [this piece ](http://archive.is/Os5kG) helped me get back into exploring the sewers.

The white, sunlit cavern the two heroines crawled out of faced a dark balcony accessible only by ladder. Sarah went into uncharted territory first, now fully dressed for once, and reached a closed door. Still completely unarmed and, worse yet, completely unsure of the nature of the possible threats beyond, Sarah pressed on with Ellie an arm's length behind.

"Oh shit...." Sarah sharply whispered. She took a stance and used her rear arm to stave Ellie back. Within the dark room she just opened, a humanoid body lay slumped over a railing on the raised platform half a floor above them. It stayed stationary, and with no firearms or projectile weapons on her, Sarah inched forward on a squat, primed and ready to spring.

Crossing the fatal funnel of the doorway, Sarah swivelled her head around for a look. An L shaped room, there seemed to be no one else in there. Not wanting to give up the advantageous element of surprise, Sarah grabbed both the man's legs and pulled them under to take him down. She sprang back, waiting for a reaction, but the body simply crumpled lifelessly.

The moldy body was already dead, the bulletproof vest completely deflated and deteriorated beyond use. Sorting through his pockets (they were empty), the dirty blonde spotted another corpse that lay flat on its face some distance away. Sarah kicked its foot, a bit less cautiously now, and found the coast clear. The adrenaline dumped down, turning into extra bile in the bottom of her stomach.

Searching for supplies, Sarah felt Ellie's presence approach. Needing a pick-me-up, the adult brunette reached for her younger girlfriend and took a kiss from her. The auburnette clung to Sarah's arm, and spotted a note: 

_Yesterday I met with some people who did not want to shoot me on sight. Shocking, I know. We traded some supplies and went on our merry way._

_They had kids with them and they seemed pretty scared. I almost told them about this place. What if they're like the others? What if..._

_You know what? I don't care. What's the point of surviving if you don't have someone to laugh at your lame jokes?_

_Tomorrow, I'm going to search for them. See if they want to join me in here._

_— Ish_

"Wrong move, there," Sarah muttered. Immediately she regretted it knowing the dialogue that was going to transpire.

"What do you mean 'wrong move'?" Ellie asked innocently. She could see Sarah was mulling over how to respond, and just a month ago, if she met Sarah Ringwalt Dubois for the first time, Ellie would have thought the adult was simply ignoring her. But now, Sarah's lover knew better.

Ellie's girlfriend likewise honestly appreciated the 14-year-old's patience. The 29-year-old's hand grasped the other's warmly, and led the young woman out of the room. Sarah descended the ladder first, followed by Ellie, and the two waded into the clean sewer water. Once they immersed themselves fully into the water, Sarah swam backwards into Ellie's arms to offer a piggyback swim.

Now Sarah opened up, "What I meant back there was my gut reaction to having...liabilities on my hands. More people, more problems; more people you care about, more heartache. The last person before you was Tess, and even though we never even kissed, she took a chunk out of my heart when she bled out on that floor in Boston."

Ellie rested her head into the crook of Sarah's neck, "Does it ever heal, though?" The question was less an inquiry about something as subjective and intangible as heartache, but more her admitting her inexperience with life and love.

The two emerged from the water on the other side of the sewer cove, back to where they first opened the gate. An open tunnel lay waiting for them on the right side, too high to reach from the waterline. Sarah looked forward to the entrance, hands on hips, and back down to Ellie. A fond smile grew, and Ellie shyly returned it in kind. The brunette wiped stray, wet strands of hair from Ellie's eyes, and lovingly caressed Ellie's smooth cheeks and chin, "I'm starting to heal right now."


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fellow Russian Hacker posted another Ellie x Sarah fic making it look easy. I'm not jealous of the quality or anything i swer: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12615124

"We need to get into that tunnel."

The younger Ellie agreed. Sarah followed through with her spoken goal, checking every which way to find somethin

AH, she almost audibly let out. In their serious stupor coming out of the last room, the two women failed to recognize a solution: a wooden pallet lay propped near the top of the ladder.

Without a word, Sarah dove back in the water. Ellie lifted her hands in surprise, and dropped them on her hips in exasperation. "Yo, Sarah, what the fuck?" She had half a mind to jump in and follow her, or at least nearly drown trying to. That _could_ have taught Sarah a lesson, or Ellie would just have looked stupid with a girlfriend who would definitely struggle to contain her laughter.

Sarah arose from the water, gracefully and much more femininely than she gives herself credit for, Ellie thought. The auburnette allowed her gaze to trace the dirty blonde's move up the ladder, and to the....

The fucking pallet, again.

After dropping the pallet into the water and meeting it down below, Sarah gleefully waded towards her girlfriend, unabashedly taking delight in Ellie's sourpuss mien and hunched posture that betrayed her annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, get on the fucking pallet."

Ellie hopped on the damp pallet, more annoyed by the contrasting feel of dry above and barely wet on her hands and knees than the actual posture she was forced into. Upon this realization, Sarah let go.

"Sarah! What the fuck!" Ellie was more than annoyed. Furious, even. There her so called guardian was, more interested in checking out an underage girl on her hands and knees from the front, back, and broadside rather than making sure the younger ward was safe and DRY. "GET ME OFF THIS THING!"

Sarah pushed from behind Ellie's derrière. This thankfully permitted the teen to reach the ledge in front of her. From above, Ellie glared down at her teasing girlfriend. "I'm not letting you up until you apologi

"I'm sorry!" Sarah quickly yelled. Completely taking the wind out of the child's sails, the childish adult flashed a genuine smile of love. 

Ellie was still quite angry, and refused to acknowledge the interruption. She elected for the silent treatment, not yet fully understanding why this would get the hardest reaction out of her girlfriend.

"Ellie, baby girl, I'm sorry. I love you. Please let me up." Panic was setting in. The cold water all around her helped not at all with managing the sense of dread. If Ellie is up there by herself for too long, something _unknown_ could sneak up on her from ahead. "Please let me up, now. Now, darling."

If Ellie was sensing that Sarah was very serious and worried, she was not showing it. She stared down at Sarah with a slightly mad expression, trying to wilt her tormentor with her gaze and silence.

"Baby, please," Sarah pleaded. Oh, that one sounded genuine, Ellie thought. Oh, her face was changing, a bit too quickly for comfort. "Honey, please stop messing aROUND!" 

The panic was real. Not only did the shrill voice bring Ellie's mind back to attention, but also a pool of faint color began to emanate from where Sarah floated.

Ellie tore her numb gaze from her lover and turned around to do something. Find something that would help. 

Uh.... 

Oh, the engine. Or motor? Or...generator! "Got it," Ellie called out. Sarah immediately hissed back, "Be careful!" 

One single tug and the generator throbbed to life. It powered the lift platform that would transport people from one side to the other of the sewer chamber. But as soon as the platform began to move, Ellie felt the generator die out. "What?"

"Try the generator again, Ellie." Sarah welcomed the distraction of problem solving that superceded her panicked worry. The generator refused to resurrect itself, however, and forced Sarah to an alternative. "Ellie, just squat down by the lip for me."

Ellie did as instructed, and seemed to catch on to the impromptu method. She dropped her arm down, but at the expense of her posture.

"Babe, keep your shoulders broad and back. Keep your spine straight. Think of a gorilla."

Recognition was not writ on Ellie's young face. "Huh?"

Sarah felt her head tingle at the frustration of knowledge lost to Ellie's generation. The 29-year-old never cared much for school while it still existed, same as most kids she knew then had felt, but what she would give to let these kids have an education....

"Think of 'ooga booga,' cave man. Strong back and shoulders. It lets you lift more than you think you should. Also, give me both hands, darling."

Ellie followed her words unquestioningly. For this, Sarah felt pride, as misplaced as it sounds. She dove down a bit into the water, near the ledge Ellie squatted on. Sarah pushed off the water as fast as she could and grabbed both of Ellie's forearms. As quickly as she broke the water's surface, Sarah overcame the ledge and ensured Ellie's safety with an arm around her waist. "I got you, baby girl."

"I'm about ready to leave this sewer. How about you?" Ellie loosed.

"I agree." Sarah took Ellie's hand in hers and led the way.


End file.
